May ups its game

...but only slightly.



Garden Carpet



Campion



After some great birding over the weekend, the weather appears to have made a turn for the better. Sunday night and the trap was out! With temperatures of 13 degrees for the daytime, and only dropping to 9 degrees throughout the night I thought that something wonderful would grace the trap.



Pale Mottled Willow



Shuttle-shaped Dart



Garden Carpet, Pale Mottled Willow, Campion and Twenty-plume Moth were all potted before departing for bed - and all new for the garden yearlist. I was excited to see what would be in the trap when I awoke!!

Sadly, the exitement was a little far-fetched and the only inhabitants of the trap were 2 x Shuttle-shaped Dart. But they too were new for the garden yearlist, and take pride of place among the 7 moths that came to please me. The other little fellow was Emmelina monodactyla.

This week is looking much warmer, albeit with clearer night skies, so hopefully the traps will definitely be out again soon (and much fuller too!)

A night in Notts

Thursday night was the first of (hopefully) a monthly event at work. The grounds surrounding the British Geological Survey are hugely varied and the plantlife found there is broad. We have one boudary edged by farmland, another by the houses of the village, the northern edge is a lane and cricket pitch and the eastern side has a wooded stream. So the chance to organise a mothing session was organised by myself and a couple of colleagues. We set up both of my traps (15W Actinic/60W Clearbulb combo and an 80W MBF) and the only thing to let us down was the weather. We had a warm day with maximum temps of 18degrees, but the wind was blowing constantly, up to 30kph. We chose one site by the stream and the other site was in our wildlife garden next to a small drying pond. We sat and watched and waited but up until 10pm we had only had one fly-by. A couple of bats were seen and lots of associated insects that normally come to trap lights, so the signs were good. At just gone 10pm the MBF attracted a Pine Beauty, Flame Shoulder and a Waved Umber in quick succession so I was pleased that the visitors managed to see something before they departed around 1030.
I returned in the morning to unload, and we had managed 10 moths in total - 3 from the Actinic and 7 from the MBF. A bit disappointing but hopefully things will improve as it warms up! Plus these species are all new for the BGS list so I'm looking on the brightside!
Results
Actinic Trap
1 x Syndemis musculana
1 x Scalloped Hazel
1 x Agonoterpix heracliana/ciliella

80W MBF
1 x Pine Beauty
1 x Waved Umber
1 x Flame Shoulder
1 x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 x Bright-line Brown-eye
1 x Elachista atricomella
1 x Oak-tree Pug

We also found quite a few other bugs, the best of which are below.

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Oak-tree Pug

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Scalloped Hazel

Nursery-web Spider

Woundwort Shieldbug

Some sort of hoverfly - anyone got an id?

Not much of a birthday bonanza

My little boy's 10th birthday on Thursday! But the moths definitely didn't come out to celebrate with us. Although in fairness it wasn't a great night for the winged creatures....temperatures were relatively low (certainly early in the morning) and the sky was clear.

This was reflected in the slightly lower numbers, with only 68 moths of 27 species caught. I did get these two Small Fan-footed Wave which are new for the year. I only caught two of these last year so to get these two in one trap was good to see.

Here are a few of the other moth highlights. They include this Campion which I always enjoy catching simply because it's a cracking looking moth! I also had a reccurence of the Shuttle-shaped Dart, with two in the trap. These are the first I've had since April/May so I assume they are second generation? You can really see the 'shuttles' on this one. In addition to several of the commoner micros (Scoparia ambigualis/Dipleurina lacustrata/ Eudonia mercurella/Agriphila straminella) I caught this worn crambid. At first I thought it was Crambus lathionellus but now I'm thinking Catoptria falsella.

The Scarce Footman is becoming a regular at the trap just lately, I've caught at least one in most traps I've done for the past week or so. As is the next moth, this Scalloped Oak. Only ever a solitary visitor however. The last one is another puzzler...Currant or Wormwood Pug. Again any comments would be very welcome!

Full catch report for Thursday 21st July 2011
Agriphila straminella x 3
Bee Moth
Brimstone x 3
Campion
Catoptria falsella (New for Year)
Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clepsis consimiliana x 2
Common Rustic agg x 2
Common Wainscot
Currant Pug
Dark Arches x 14
Dipleurina lacustrata x 6
Dun-bar
Eudonia mercurella
Garden Carpet
Heart and Dart x 4
Large Yellow Underwing x 3
Marbled Minor agg.
Pale Mottled Willow
Riband Wave x 5
Scalloped Oak
Scarce Footman
Scoparia ambigualis x 2
Shuttle-shaped Dart x 2
Small Fan-footed Wave x 2 (New for Year)
Uncertain x 5
Willow Beauty x 2

Let's see what tonight brings?!?

Oh...and the birds did disappear as predicted! Frustration keeps me on my toes...