And with small rewards comes Spring

Yes! It must be Spring at last. The crocus are out, the Robin was singing at 1030pm in the hedgerow at the top of the garden. A Sand Martin was seen in London this morning (although the Walrus sighting in Scotland yesterday reminded us that the Arctic hasn't fully left us yet!).

The mild temperatures over the weekend prompted me to dust of the trap and try a little light polluting. I only put out the 15W Actinic to see what I could attract (only a half-hearted effort really) and after a couple of visits up the garden without anything showing I wasn't very hopeful. However, I packed the trap away at midnight and found this little fella perched next to the trap on a tarpauline...

March Moth is my 3rd moth this year (following a few sightings of Winter Moth and a single Emmelina monodactyla in the garden).

A small gesture from nature and a hint of things to come, although probably not for another week or so as it looks like it's gonna get cold again at the weekend!

July catch up Part 1

Almost a month since my last post so not too sure where to start. I guess a quick review of garden traps would be the best place. July sort of improved midmonth so the trap was out almost every other night with some good results

12th July - 79 of 36 species with highlights being a garden first Eucosma hohenwartiana, and year firsts in the form of Scalloped Oak and Bud Moth




13th July - 62 of 23 species with highlights being year first Grey Dagger agg. and Engrailed






Things then started to improve with 15th July bringing 124 of 46 species, but a fairly boring catch with the only first being new for year Common Rustic.

16th July - 93 moths of 36 moths with highlights being year first Udea prunalis and Bird-cherry Ermine and a return of an Elephant Hawk





17th July - a much better night with 174 of 54 moths, highlights being year firsts of Agriphila straminella, Smoky Wainscot, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Buff Arches, Barred Straw, Catoptria pinella, Paraswammerdamia nebulella, Water Veneer, Batia unitella and Gothic! Phew!

 21st July - possibly my most exciting find...a Scarlet Tiger in the garden. Apparently it's a first for Derbyshire, but is in all likelihood going to be an escape from someone imported plants? Who knows, but I shall bask in its beautiful markings nonetheless and thank it for gracing my little patch! (PS: it's not dead, it's just a bit cold! It flew off happily the following evening)

I also managed two further garden firsts. This Shark was a very surprising find at the bottom of the trap, and this Scoparia basistrigalis was an interesting spot amongst the other Scopariids, easy to spot when placed next to ambigualis but not sure I'd pick it out otherwise!

In addition to these beauties, I also got year firsts in the form of Varied Coronet, Eucosma cana and Codling Moth

Rest of July to follow soon...

Another new micro - 8th July

The good times continue - the weather held from Thursday, calm, cloudy, but dry (well actually there was some rain but it didn't seem to bother my MBF bulb). The moths came thick and fast up to 2300hrs and I'd caught 25 before I went to bed. The morning was even better, with 50 moths hanging around the sheet and shed walls (this must be the best tally I've managed so far!).
One of these was this fantastic little micro - Argyresthia brockeella. On first sight it looked black and white - dead straight forward. But when it came to photographing it, it changed its colours from green and white and then to orange and white. Really beautiful...and only 6mm long!! This is an example of why I absolutely love mothing. The knowledge of this particular type of moth was completely non-existent to me three years ago, and to 98% of the population of Britain it doesn't exist. But since starting mothing my eyes have been opened to greater things, and I feel very privileged when these tiny guys visit my garden.

Other goodies were Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix, Green Oak Tortrix, Lozotaeniodes formosana, Shaded Broadbar, Mottled Rustic...

Lozotaeniodes formosana

Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix

Green Oak Tortrix

Shaded Broadbar

Blackneck

Mottled Rustic

There was also one other tiny newcomer to the trap, this small Coleophora which turns out to be a Pistol Case-bearer!

A foray into the daytime - 8th July

8th July
Shipley Park was the destination for today's Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Entomotogical Society's Summer Exhibition. It was a great display, lots of moths to see (along with some similar-minded folk), some live creatures to look at, and hold in Jordan's case, and the best bit 'a butterfly walk'. This was a short trip into the fields next to the visitor centre, where it quickly went from a butterfly walk to a 'catch-what-we-can' walk. The butterflies started off being fairly quiet, with Ringlet being caught quickly but not much more. However, we busied ourselves with various hoverflies, grasshoppers and of course moths. In fact the moths were more numerous and some goodies were caught. The best (for me at least!) were a few Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet, Burnet Companion, and Latticed Heath (with only 3 wings!). These were all New for Me, so I was very pleased!! We also had numerous Chrysoteuchia culmella, a few Shaded Broadbar and a single Blackneck. We also ended with 8 species of butterfly and 2 dragonflies! A good tally I think!

Sorry for the pot-shots but I couldn't get any decent shots "in the wild".

Latticed Heath

Burnet Companion

Perfection

After 4 days of almost constant rainy, windy, crappy weather the 5th gave us all a break. And I'm sure I wasn't alone when I saw the weather improve, every mother in the country must've reached instinctively for their traps. The temperatures hovered around the early 20s throughout the day and remained above 15 during the night which obviously lead to a big haul. A good number of new for years fell tonight, including Swallow-tail, Plain Golden Y, Clay and Bramble Shoot Moth, and even better than all these was spotted on the sheet at around 2330.

Common Emerald

The interesting shape of a geometrid could be seen from the opposite side of the sheet as I approached the trap, and it got my attention straight away. A quick peep over the top proved that I was right to be excited...my first Common Emerald. Grab a pot...open it with fumbling fingers...moth in pot...yes!

Total moths 204! Brilliant...but how long will it last?

Plain Golden Y

Short-cloaked Moth

Small Magpie

Clay

Swallow-tailed Moth

Bramble Shoot Moth

Catch up of recent lifers

These are my recent additions to my life list/garden list. It's been a bit hectic just recently so apologies for no real story behind this lot! I probably don't need to tell you all how excited I was to get Beautiful Hooktip in the garden though! Lovely moth...

20/06/2012	Moth Trap Evening at BGS
Brown Rustic
Isotrias rectifasciana
Crambus pratella
Udea olivalis
Plum Tortrix
Apotomis capreana
Epinotia bilunana
Scrobipalpa costella
23/06/2012	Garden 80W MBF
Clover Case-bearer
27/06/2012	Garden 80W MBF
Lathronympha strigana
Cyclamen Tortrix
Grapholita janthinana
Large Fruit-tree Tortrix
Hawthorn Moth
Metzneria metneriella
28/06/2012	Garden 15W Actininc / 117W CFL combo
Beautiful Hooktip

The other interesting news is that a friend at work discovered some Mullein caterpillars in her garden and didn't want them destroying any more plants. 4 in total were left on my desk, and they duly came home and into a suitable pot ready for hatching. Apparently they could take up to 5 years to become moths so we could be in for a long wait...

National Moth Night catch up

Moth Trapping Event at Carr Wood 22nd June 2012

This was the fourth trapping session that I’ve held at Carr Wood since beginning in April and although the weather was a little disappointing there were some interesting results from the traps.

As in previous sessions we ran two traps – 1 x 80W MBF Robinson-type and a 15W Actinic/117W CFL combo Skinner-type. These were located on the main footpath through the wood around 150m from the entrance to the wood from Fletcher Street.

The traps were assembled at 9pm and a number of people gathered to meet up for this event with the majority staying until the end at midnight. Many thanks to all those that turned up, it was really great to meet you all! The traps were lit at 2145hrs and the moths starting arriving around 2210hrs, a little later than anticipated. Plenty of other bugs and insects also frequented the traps and sheet, with midges, gnats, some sort of scarab beetle(?) and lots of craneflies.

The final tally was 49 moths which was quite a respectable haul given the cool temperature (it dropped to 10⁰C by midnight), and poor weather Thurs/Fri/Sat morning. Fortunately the gusty winds had dropped by Saturday.

15W Actinic/117W CFL combo trap		80W MBF Trap
Agonopterix arenella	1
		Argyresthia spinosella	1
Angle Shades	1
Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix	1
Beautiful Golden Y	1
		Blastobasis lacticolella	2
		Blastodacna hellerella	1
		Bright-line Brown-eye	1
		Brimstone	2
		Burnished Brass	1
Chrysoteuchia culmella	1
Common Marbled Carpet	1	Common Marbled Carpet	1
Common Pug	2	Common Pug	4
Common Wave	1
Dipleurina lacustrata	1
		Flame Shoulder	1
Freyer’s Pug	1
		Garden Carpet	1
Green Carpet	1	Green Carpet	2
Grey Pug	1	Grey Pug	1
		Ingrailed Clay	4
		Light Emerald	1
Marbled Minor agg.	1
Melanic pug sp	1	Melanic pug sp	1
Mottled Beauty	2
		Nematopogon swammerdamella	1
Prays fraxinella	1
		Pseudargyrotoza conwagana	1
Riband Wave	1
Scoparia ambigualis	1	Scoparia ambigualis	1
		Small Dusty Wave	1
Small Fanfoot	1	Small Fanfoot	2
		White-shouldered House Moth	1
Totals	20		29

All this means that I managed to pick up one new micro (Argyresthia spinosella) but more importantly managed to add 26 species to the Carr Wood List! Great news!
Now for the photos...

Small Dusty Wave

Common Wave

Beautiful Golden Y

Mottled Beauty

Angle Shades

Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix

Various shades of Ingrailed Clay

Flame Shoulder

Brimstone

Light Emerald

Small Fan-foot

Grey Pug

Bright-line Brown-eye

Argyresthia spinosella

Burnished Brass

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana