And still they come

The last few days have really made up for the dismal April, although I suspect that some of the early spring moths have slipped through the net. Still, we look forward as all good folk should and this post shows why - a Sunday and Monday trap and both days providing lots of activity and new moths for the year. And some great moths to see too!

Sunday 27th - 33 moths of 16 species. 15W BLB and 117W CFL combo trap
The majority of space in the trap was taken up by the boisterous Scalloped Hazel and tonight brought 9 of them to the trap, by far the most I've seen! New for the year came in the form of 2 x Pale Tussock, a cracking little Mottled Pug, a tiny Firethorn Leaf Miner, Iron Prominent and a Rustic Shoulder-knot. The Iron Prom was a bit battered and had obviously been around for a while so I'm surprised that I haven't seen one earlier. The rest were really fresh moths, especially the Scalloped Hazel, indicating the recent warm weather had eventually brought about the miraculous transformation that brings them to the trap.

Pale Tussock

Look at those antenae

Mottled Pug

Firethorn Leaf Minor

A great night and some old friends from last year providing lots of entertainment. I've also come across (what I think is) an interesting idea for photographing moths. As anyone who has ever tried, it is bloody difficult to get 'em to stop still! Putting them in the fridge seems to work to some degree, particularly works well with Noctuids and the like, not quite so good with Geometrids and almost no good with the micros. After spending hours trying to photographing them last year and watching the after effects of fridging them up for the day I noticed that almost all the species immediately stuck our their tongue (is that the right choice of word?) and started searching for moisture, presumably to re-hydrate themselves after being so cold. It immediately struck me that if there were something sweet and tempting for them to drink then they may stay longer. And thus began my experiment with sugar, honey and water dripped onto the wall where I take my photos to see which species respond more than others. As you can see for micros it works a treat, the Leaf Miner above stayed for plenty of time. Pugs seem to love it too, which is great as I haven't many good pug shots. The only ones that haven't appeared to appreciate my culinary skills are the Brimstone and Twenty-plume Moth. The tests continue...

Monday 28th - 43 moths of 21 species . 15W Actinic with 42W CFL combo
With equally good conditions, I thought it would be a good test to see how the moths respond differently to the Actinic. As you can see the results speak for themselves - almost 30% more moths than yesterday. Tonight 7 new for the year including this Poplar Hawk-moth (always great to get a hawk in the trap!!), Small Phoenix, the first of plenty of Heart & Darts, the first orange-panelled Common Marbled Carpet appeared (the others I've caught so far have been the dark grey variety) and a few others. Nothing new for my lifelist again, but as you can see some fascinatingly varied moths!

Poplar Hawk-moth

Small Phoenix

White-spotted Pug

Incurvaria masculella

Foxglove Pug

Buff Ermine

Twenty-plume Moth

With all these newbies the moth yearlist has now hit the 81 mark. The trap is out again as we speak and buzzing with this heavy cloud, hopefully it doesn't rain too hard...

Moth update for end of August and beginning of September

This is just gonna be a quick round up of new species and highlights since my holiday. It's hanging over me, and I refer you to my previous about not having the time, blah, blah blah!

So 28th August came and went with not too much to shout about, although a Mouse Moth was new for the garden (and has turned up in most traps since). The underwings continue to make up most of the trap, but I have only caught singles of Setaceous Hebrew Character this year, unlike last year when I had double figures on some nights. Other highlights included this Angle Shades (top right) and Agonopterix arenella (right)

 
 The following night gave pretty much the same results, with 53 moths of 18 species. Garden Rose Tortrix started to arrive tonight and surely the last Dark Arches of the year gave a final fling. Sallow was also new for the year and only my second caught. Other goodies were Gothic and Old Lady (now looking a bit battered!)

Last day of the month and conditions were looking good. Temperatures were relatively warm, winds were dropped and it was fairly cloudy. As an extra incentive to my winged friends I got hold of a clip-on bulb holder and a compact fluorescent bulb. Given this idea by Skev it turned out to be a good idea, presumably the extra visible light spectrum introduced by the CFL attracts some extras (can't wait to try this method in the summer!). The results were a fairly impressive 120 moths of 31 species including plenty of micros. 4 of these were new for the garden, Epinotia nisella, Eudonia angustea, Acleris emargana and Zeiraphera isertana. Brilliant! New for the year came in the form of Centre-barred Sallow and other goodies included Flame Carpet, Orchard Ermine, Small Dusty Wave and Acleris forsskaleana.

Into September and the combo trap continued to produce the results, although the great conditions helped a lot! 3rd September results were 154 moths of 35 species. Again micros predominated with new for garden in the form of Bucculatrix ulmella, Ectoedemia louisella and Ancylis badiana. New for the year were Straw Dot and Pyrausta aurata (right). Other highlights included Rosy Rustic, Mouse Moth, Brimstone (!), Meal Moth and Caloptilia syringella.

With temperatures cooling slightly towards the weekend, the trap on the 8th September wasn't quite as spectacular, with 60 moths of 24 species. New for garden was Firethorn Leaf-miner and Lobesia littoralis (right). Highlights included Skin Moth, another Bucculatrix ulmella, Eudonia angustea, Mouse Moth and Silver Y.

The following night 9th September gave slightly better results, partly due to the cloudier conditions I think, with 84 moths of 31 species. Highlights were Spruce Carpet, another Firethorn Leaf Miner, Marbled Beauty (another species that hasn't appeared in as many numbers as last year) and another Silver Y.