Saturday 27 July 2013

Out and About

Last night, I took part in a very sociable session at RSPB Otmoor with friends and experts, running traps and a sheet at various locations on the reserve.  Although some of the hoped-for species were not seen (that being based on a session run at the same time last year), the list hit around 750 moths of over 160 species.

Accurate counts of some of the common species were not possible, so the total number of moths was over 1000, but one notable count was 63 Garden Tigers.

Some of the notable macro species included (lifers for me in bold) :

Oak Eggar
Large Emerald
Blood Vein
Small Scallop
Large Twin-spot Carpet
Shaded Broad-bar
Dark Umber
Bordered Beauty
September Thorn
Sallow Kitten
Round-winged Muslin
Rosy Footman
Four-dotted Footman
Kent Black Arches
Dark Sword-grass
Double Dart

Southern Wainscot
Smoky Wainscot
Common Wainscot
Minor Shoulder-knot
Small Dotted Buff
Dusky Sallow

The Crescent
Fen Wainscot
Silky Wainscot
Gold Spot
Blackneck

 Four-dotted Footman
 Bordered Beauty
 Blackneck
Kent Black Arches

Friday 26 July 2013

New for the year.

Having run the GMS trap for my favourite woodland site, and also for my own garden a day early this week, a few new moths for my year list arrived on the scene.

The woodland highlights included:

Treble-bar (NFY)
Nut-tree Tussock (the next generation)
Waved Black (NFY)
Drinker
Black Arches (NFY)

Drinker
 
My garden list wasn't quite so good, but Shaded Broad-bar was new for the year (although it flew off before I could grab a photo).

Wednesday 24 July 2013

More new garden moths

Although the weather seems to be reverting to type (i.e. cold, wet etc - normal British Summer) and the moth numbers are down, I am still getting new species in the garden trap; it's always nice to see "old favourites" from last year.

I've also spent several hours (well, probably a couple) trying to get micros to settle sufficiently for photographs and examination with a hand-lens. Some of them, I have identified, but some will forever remain a mystery.

The highlights of this exercise, plus the last couple of night's trapping were:

Agriphila tristella
Thrachycera advenella
Athrips mouffetella
Cork Moth (NFG)
Timothy Tortrix (NFG)
August Thorn
Vapourer (NFG)
Copper Underwing agg. (flew off before I could have a decent look...)
Agriphila inquinatella
Carcena quercana
Phoenix
Scalloped Hook-tip
Orthopygia glaucinalis
Juniper Webber
Dun-bar
Gothic

Gothic

 

Monday 22 July 2013

Back to Bucks

I've been away enjoying the sunshine and moths of Gower. Some of my sightings there are posted in the GMRG Blog (link on the right) so I won't repeat them here, suffice to say I saw a LOT of new moths, and a lot of more common ones as well. Moths appear to be thriving there!

I have been running my garden trap, for the GMS recording scheme and also last night to give the MV light a go before wet weather returns. The new and interesting moths were:

Bramble Shoot Moth
Pammene fasciana (NFY)
Dipleurina lacustrata
Phlyctaenia coronata

Mother of Pearl
Endotricha flammealis
Wax Moth
White Plume Moth (NFG)
Buff Arches
Small Emerald (lifer)
Clay Triple-lines
Dwarf Cream Wave
Yellow Shell
July Highflyer
Fern
Small Rivulet
V Pug
Scalloped Oak
Poplar Hawk-moth
Scarce Footman
Short-cloaked Moth
Lesser Yellow Underwing
Smoky Wainscot
Common Rustic agg.
Rustic
Yellow Tail
Ruby Tiger
Bird-cherry Ermine
Lozotaeniodes formosanus (NFG)
Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
Oak Nycteoline (NFG)
The Cinnabar (NFG)
Acleris forsskaleana
Common Wainscot
Small Fan-footed Wave
Swallow-tailed Moth
Single-dotted Wave
Ruby Tiger
Clay (NFG)
Least Carpet
Chinese Character

Chinese Character

Tuesday 9 July 2013

The New Arrivals Continue...

With the hot weather continuing, moth numbers to my actinic light have been dramatically increased, with over 30 species a night (more than twice the species and 4 times the individuals as last week), and consequently new species are appearing on the list all the time.

It's always nice to see familiar species re-emerging, and even more so, new species for the garden list:

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana (NFG)
Scoparia pyralella
Udea prunalis
Common Emerald (strictly speaking, in the house rather than the garden!)
Small Blood Vein
Small Dusty Wave
Dwarf Pug
Peacock Moth (NFG)
Brown Silver-line (NFG)
Pale Oak Beauty (NFG)
Buff Footman
Miller (NFG)

Miller

Sunday 7 July 2013

Good end to a hectic week's mothing.

On Friday night, I was involved in two separate trapping sessions, both with the ultimate aim of providing some interesting moths to show members of the public, but also, obviously, to get in some great mothing.

The first session was at a chalk grassland reserve with a total of 5 lights running, and although I had to leave before the final opening of the traps, there was an excellent range of species arriving, over 100 macro and 50 micro species, with several more taken for later id.

For my own lists, the highlights were as follows; all new for the year:

Blue-bordered Carpet
White Plume
Ghost Moth
Brown Scallop
Barred Yellow (lifer)
Maple Prominent
Bramble Shoot Moth
Mocha (lifer)
Miller (lifer)
Eyed Hawk-moth
Fan-foot
Pine Hawk-moth
Bordered Sallow (lifer)
Clay
Shaded Pug (lifer)
Haworth's Pug (lifer)
Brown-line Bright-eye (lifer)
Bright-line Brown-eye
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Reddish Light Arches (lifer)

The second session involved leaving a variety of traps overnight in a favourite woodland spot:

Barred Red (lifer)
Grey Arches
Dark Arches
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Great Oak Beauty
Brindled White Spot
Pinion-streaked Snout
Currant Pug

and later in the day;

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet (lifer)

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

The fun wasn't over yet, as I ran my MV light in my garden overnight, with the following highlights; all at least new for the garden year list:

Treble Brown Spot
Common Footman
Great Oak Beauty (NFG)
Barred Red (NFG)
Light Emerald
Dark Arches
Lime Hawk-moth (lifer)
Lychnis (lifer)
Dusky Brocade (lifer)
Lime Hawk-moth






Friday 5 July 2013

Out and About

Apart from the usual running the trap in the garden, I also went with a friend over to Bowdown Woods, near Thatcham, to join a session run by Berkshire BBOWT. We joined in a lot of their sessions last year, seeing a lot of excellent moths, but this was the first time this year.

The traps were left overnight, but as we had to leave around midnight, I only saw 85 moths of 52 species, so anything that came in later, well, we missed!

The new ones for my year list were:

Variegated Golden Tortrix
Agriphila straminella
Ephestia parasitella
  (lifer)
Platyptilia pallidactyla
Drinker
Blotched Emerald
Common Emerald
Phoenix
Purple Clay
Double Square-spot
Green Arches
Poplar Grey
Small Angle Shades
Dark Arches

My garden trapping has been fairly quiet this week, which is why I've not posted, but new for the garden list this year were:

Argyresthia curvella (lifer)

Pandemis cinnamomeana
Lozotaenia forsterana  
Marbled Orchard Tortrix
Crambus pascuella
Garden Pebble
Mottled Beauty
Lesser Swallow Prominent
Large Yellow Underwing
Angle Shades

Angle Shades