The calm before the storm?

The report is from Thursday's catch - a bit belated due to other commitments. Can you believe that moths don't take precidence!!

I decided to give my BLB bulb another test, the conditions seemed pretty much the same as Tuesday...until about 5pm when from nowhere the wind started blowing. However, I continued with my plan but this actually led to a slightly smaller catch. It would be nice to be able to test the bulbs side-by-side for a fair result, but I don't have multiple traps (yet!) or the garden size/neighbours to make this justifiable!

Still one thing is clear, the BLB seems to pull in the goodies when it's used. Dark Arches certainly put on a much better show than the previous two traps with 21 in the trap.

The best of the night was undoubtedly my first ever Purple Thorn. The bizarre resting position gave it away immediately as it waited for me at the trap-side in the morning. The only other new species for me was this Mompha propinquella. Had me stumped for a while so many thanks to Peter Krischkiw on back-garden-moths for this id.

Other nice moths from Thursday included this Grey/Dark Dagger agg. which has turned up twice so far this year but it is such a finely-detailed moth that it was nice to find another. I was also very pleased to spot a small underwing zipping round the light. I followed it as it flew close then away from the light but eventually succumbed to the attractiveness of the BLB! By the morning I had managed to attract two of these - Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings. I enjoy catching these as they're not quite as beligerant as their big cousin, the Large Yellow, and are much more photogenic too!

Here is another moth which appears to have missed my garden last year, but this individual is the sixth for 2011 - Agapeta hamana is such a splendid colour too. Another moth that managed a return was Agonopterix heracliana. This is a very unassuming little micro which hasn't been seen since April. It can be confused with a couple of other similar moths but I think this is the more common of the genus.

And finally...
What the devil is this? It was small, 13mm in length, and the lovely rusty colour is how it looked in real life. It also had a bit of a sheen to it. There has been the suggestion that it may be Rosy Minor, but I've no experience with this species so I'll leave it a bit longer and see what else I can find out. Any comments would be welcome?

Catch report for Thursday 28th July 2011 - 71 moths of 27 species (13 micros; 14 macros)
Agapeta hamana
Agonopterix heracliana
Agriphila straminella x 2
Agriphila tristella x 3
Bee Moth
Brown House-Moth x 2
Bryotropha terrella x 2
Bud Moth
Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clay
Common Rustic agg x 9
Dark Arches x 21
Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix
Dipleurina lacustrata x 4
Eudonia mercurella x 2
Grey Dagger
Heart and Dart x 3
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x 2 (New for Year)
Marbled Beauty x 3
Mompha propinquella (New for Me)
Mottled Rustic
Purple Thorn (New for Me)
Riband Wave x 2
Rosy Minor (TBC - New for Me if it is this species)
Shuttle-shaped Dart x 2
Smoky Wainscot
Willow Beauty

Sunday night I'm on a camping/moth trapping trip to Chatsworth Park with Ian G from Derby. It's looking like the weather is going to be perfect, so I'm hoping to boost my moth list and get some more experience of different types of trapping. I don't know who's more excited me or my little boy!?! Stay tuned for details and (hopefully) some great photos...