Autumn time

Feathered Thorn

The Brick

I've only been getting a few moths each time I trap, mainly a mix of Grey-pine Carpet, Feathered Thorn, the occasional Chestnut and November/Winter moth(Epiritta sp.) which is hardly surprising considering how cold it's been...hopefully next year will be a better year for moths in my garden.

Catch up time

I'm sorry that I haven't been regularly updating the blog recently but a family crisis has eaten up a lot of my spare time, I have still been trapping as often as possible and I've had some interesting moths so here are some of them.

Red Line Quaker

Dusky Thorn

Angle Striped Sallow

Brindled Green

Lunar Underwing

Brindled Green ab - no green!

Beaded Chestnut

Blair's Shoulder Knot

Beaded Chestnut

Not very bright!

Small China Mark

Mouse Moth

Six Striped Rustic

Some of you may know that I recently purchased a large collection of butterfly and moth specimens plus a huge amount of setting and collecting equipment so I've been very busy with that recently as well as being in the midst of a family crisis. I have tried to put the trap out at least every other night(or in the kitchen doorway if it's been raining) but I have been very disappointed by the lack of moths compared to last year. I've sorted the collection now and the family crisis has just about sorted itself so with tonight being the warmest night for 2 weeks I put the trap out, I looked at it and realised that the lamp was nowhere near as bright as it should be so I swapped it for a new one and within seconds(literally!) the moths came swarming over. I get a bad feeling that I've been attempting to trap with a 'dull' lamp for the last few weeks and hopefully things will pick up again now it's been replaced.
 Anyway the last 7 days have managed 3 new species including one NFG Macro(Mouse Moth) and one Small China Mark(NFG)(ID thanks to Bill)

Beautiful Golden-Y, Rhyacionia pinicolana? & Copper Underwing +

Beautiful Golden-Y

Rhyacionia pinicolana?

Shaded Broad-bar

Copper Underwing

A reasonable night last night with the first ever Beautiful Golden-Y, I also got what could be Rhyacionia pinicolana and Shaded Broad-bar which are both NFG.

2 Beautiful Golden-Y(NFG)
1 Shaded Broad-bar(NFG)
1 Copper Underwing(NFY)
1 Rhyacionia pinicolana(NFG)

10 more newbies inc Brown-line Bright-eye, Pale Mottled Willow and Pyrausta purpuralis?

Brown-line Bright-eye

Pale Mottled Willow

Pyrausta purpuralis

Acrobasis consociella

Honeysuckle Moth

Gold Triangle

Bordered Pug

Common Carpet

Yellow Shell

My trapping has been a bit sporadic recently due to the ever changing weather and time limitations but quite a few NFG and 1 NFY have turned up.

Brown-line Bright-eye(NFG)
Pale Mottled Willow(NFY)
Pyrausta purpuralis(NFG)?
Acrobasis consociella(NFG)(ID thanks Steve)
Honeysuckle Moth(NFG)
Mottled Rustic(NFG)?
Gold Triangle(NFG)(ID thanks Steve)
Bordered Pug(NFG)
Common Carpet(first one I've managed to get a decent photo of!)
Yellow Shell(not nfy or nfg but a beautiful specimen so I had to share it)

An assortment of newbies

Buff Footman

Dun-bar

Smoky Wainscot

Silky Wainscot or Small Rufous? or ?

Light Arches or ?

??? #1

Oegoconia quadripuncta

Argyrthesia brockeella

Quite a few moths over the last few nights and quite a few new species for the garden, here are a few of them including a few I can't ID.

West End Farm Part 3 - 7/7/2010

Privet Hawk

Scallop Shell

Ghost(with eggs)

Brown Rustic

Aleimma loeflingiana

Phlyctaenia perlucidalis

Sandy Carpet

Calamotropha paludella

Large Twin-spot Carpet?

Oak Nycteoline

My last night in Lincolnshire and it was another warm one, numbers wise it was the best night of the 3 with more species turning up as well as another Privet Hawk which was much bigger than the one I got on the first night.  Other notable arrivals were Figure Of Eighty, White Spot, Sandy Carpet, Brown Rustic, Scallop Shell and a beautiful female Ghost which was kind enough to lay some eggs in her pot.
 The trap was out from 10pm till 3am, 17c all night

1 Udea lutealis
2 Udea prunalis
3 Yellow Shell
2 Silver Ground Carpet
6 Light Emerald
4 Light Arches
7 Brimstone
5 Swallowtail
7 Small Fan-footed Wave
11 Snout
1 Elephant Hawk
2 Poplar Hawk
1 Privet Hawk
3 Poplar Grey
2 Barred Yellow
4 Common Emerald
6 Riband Wave
3 Flame
5 Flame Shoulder
2 Bee Moth
12 Clouded Border
17 Uncertain
2 Small Magpie
8 Double Square-spot
3 Light Grey Tortrix
2 Celypha Striana
7 Celypha Lacunana
4 Large Fruit-tree Tortrix
2 Common Wave
1 Common White Wave
6 Clouded Silver
4 Scoparia ambigualis
3 Burnished Brass
2 Plain Golden-Y
3 Figure Of Eighty
3 Buff Arches
5 Dark Arches
2 Grey/Dark Dagger
7 Mottled Beauty
4 Marbled Minor
2 Large Yellow Underwing
7 Clay
3 White Satin Moth
3 Yellow Tail
3 Green Pug
2 Pale Prominent
5 Coxcomb Prominent
9 Shoulder Striped Wainscot
4 Common Wainscot
2 Drinker
4 Common Footman
2 Scarce Footman
1 Small Fan-foot
1 Blood Vein
3 Beautiful Hook-tip
1 Scallop Shell
6 Barred Straw
4 Heart & Dart
3 Coronet
4 Marbled Coronet
1 Cyclamen Tortrix
2 Mother Of Pearl
1 Chinese Character
1 Sandy Carpet
1 Brown Rustic
1 Ghost
1 Spectacle
1 Small Rivulet
2 Large Twin-spot Carpet?
1 Early Thorn
3 Aleimma loeflingiana
2 Phlyctaenia perlucidalis(ID thanks Ben)
3 Calamotropha paludella(ID thanks Ben)
1 Oak Nycteoline(ID thanks Ben)

West Hallam

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

Shaded Broad-bar

Latticed Heath

Clover-case Bearer

Latticed Heath(more gold than white!)

Blackneck

I had a few hours to spare this afternoon so I took the wife and dogs back to the site in West Hallam where I found several Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet last Sunday, I saw a lot of butterflies and plenty of grasshoppers and in about 90 minutes 47 moths. It was very windy so using the net was quite a task but I did ok and got one of every different species I saw...I will be going back there as soon as possible as it's quite a large site and I only covered a small section of it.

8 Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet
3 Crambus lathoniellus
1 Straw Dot
12 Celypha lacunana
1 Blackneck
10 Latticed Heath
1 Clover-case Bearer
4 Snout
1 Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
6 Shaded Broad-bar(ID thanks Noggin)