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...

Giving it a go...the results

There are some moths that when you catch them for the first time, after poring through the moth book picking them out, make to hold your breath as you pot them up and save them for their photoshoot. Species like Elephant Hawk-Moth, Chocolate-tip, Green Silver-lines, Buff-tip - all these moths had me skipping round the garden like some crazy moth-induced rain-dancer. So with the anticipation fairly high for last night's trap results I began slowly turning the eggboxes over.

"What cracker did you find?" I hear you ask. What beauty graced my garden last night??

This little fella, not so much a knock-out...more of an over-looker. But in its defence, the Small Dotted Buff did have a very charming trap manner (it didn't try and get away for starters!) and upon further investigation whilst photographing him I discovered that it has a pearlescence found in only a few of the moths species I've caught so far (Mother of Pearl being the prime example of this oystershell-type of colouration). So this little shiny brown chap goes down as number 323 in the Thorpe garden and in addition to this first.

I also had two new for the year - this Udea prunalis, a dull looking micro which as it's name suggests is closely associated with blackthorn (of which there are plenty above my trap) and four Common Wainscots. I was a little dubious as I checked them off to start with, but after photographing all five wainscot species that I caught last night, I decided that only one of them was a Smoky.

I also had my 2nd garden Gold Triangle, although it wouldn't sit still for it's photo and I eventually lost it in the conservatory somewhere! Hopefully it'll turn up in a day or two ready to pose properly. So here's a picture of my first garden record caught on 15th June 2011.

Other stars of the show were this Shaded Broadbar, Light Arches, and Mother of Pearl.

All in all not a bad catch - 95 moths of 38 species (18 Micros; 20 Macros)

Agriphila straminella x 3
Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix
Bright-line Brown-eye x 3
Brown House-Moth x 2
Bryotropha terrella x 2
Bud Moth
Celypha lacunana
Celypha striana x 2
Clepsis consimiliana
Common Rustic agg
Common Wainscot x 4 (New for Year)
Crambus lathionellus
Crambus pascuella x 3
Dark Arches x 11
Dipleurina lacustrata x 8
Double-striped Pug
Dun-bar x 2
Eudonia mercurella x 6
Fanfoot
Flax Tortrix
Garden Carpet
Gold Triangle
Heart and Dart x 10
Large Yellow Underwing x 2
Light Arches
Marbled Beauty
Mother of Pearl
Nutmeg
Riband Wave
Scoparia ambigualis x 6
Shaded Broadbar
Small Dotted Buff (New for Garden)
Small Dusty Wave
Smoky Wainscot
Swammerdamia pyrella x 3
Udea prunalis (New for Year)
Uncertain x 6
Willow Beauty