A Great Catch

CLOUDED DRAB VARIATION

GREAT PROMINENT

I had a reasonable catch last night, with a couple of showers causing a few problems. Luckily, I got a brand new species in the form of a Great Prominent. Also 15 Hebrew Character, 8 Brindled Pug, 6 Clouded Drab (including startling variations), 3 Common Quaker, 2 Double-striped Pug, 1 Powdered Quaker, and 1 Early Grey. Sean Foote.

Brindled Pug

Trapped on the 26th and confirmed by Graham Collins, the county recorder after initial suspicion that it may have been an early Oak-tree Pug.

Bill

25th April - Ken

For once there was some cloud cover last night, which meant that I had a few moths in the trap. As well as brindled pug, I think I had a double-striped pug but it flew away before I managed to catch it - it would have been my first for the year.
Purple thorn and lunar marbled brown were noted.
The species that were new for 2010 were:
the tiny micro with a long name (about 6mm long and tricky to photo) Eriocrania subpurpurpella
nut-tree tussock
Alucita hexadactyla (also called twenty-plumed moth) - another small micro.

Average catch

Streamer

Not as good a catch as yesterday, but still nice to get my first photo of a Streamer, after the first one I caught got away! Also 10 Hebrew Character, 3 Common Quaker, 2 Clouded Drab, 2 Double-striped Pug (new for year), 1 Early Thorn, and 1 Purple Thorn. Sean Foote.

Introducing me!

engrailed (above)

dotted chestnut (below)


Agonopterix alstromeriana


powdered quaker


emperor moth




yellow-horned





peacock butterfly

Lunar marbled brown

I'm Ken Noble. I live in the South-eastern corner of Surrey, under the Gatwick flight-path. (Wasn't the volcano a mercy?!)

I run a Robinson 125W trap but usually switch it off at bedtime, so I don't get the enormous catches that some people do. I started mothing about six years ago and my garden list is over 520 species now (I'm nearly up to 600 for Surrey). My main claim to fame was adding a tiny micro to the Surrey list - Argyresthia cupressella -though to be honest I wouldn't have known what it was if Graham Collins hadn't IDed it!

Trapping has been poor the last week or two because of cold nights, strong winds and lack of cloud cover. Last night I only had two lunar marbled browns, for instance. As this is my first post I'll put up one or two recent photos taken in my garden.

I enjoy photography - some of my efforts can be found on Mark Elvin's brilliant website: http://www.wildlife-galleries.co.uk/gallery2/main.php

I got my best catch for some time last night with plenty of cloud cover. I got an incredible catch of 17 Brindled Pug, as well as 11 Common Quaker, 9 Hebrew Character, 4 Clouded Drab, 1 Powdered Quaker, 1 Small Quaker, 1 Nut-tree Tussock (new for the year), 1 Iron Prominent (new for the year), 1 Brindled Beauty (new for the garden), as well as 1 Twenty-plume Moth, and 2 Black Burrying Beetles (Nicrophorous humator).

24th April- Shere

Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines

Peacock Inachis io

Comma Polygonia c-album

Encountered these three butterflies on a woodland walk around Shere today, near Guildford. Also on the wing were Brimstone, Small White and Green-veined White.

Early Thorn

Ommitted from last post

Introductions

Hi all,

My name is Sean Foote and I live in Haslemere is south-west Surrey. I first started trapping in July last year, and just like Billy, I have well and truly been bitten by the bug (or should that be the moth)! I have so far recorded an amazing 170 species in my tiny sub-urban garden so far, and I only use a bottom-of-the-range trap (a 15W Actinic)!

At the moment it is far to cold at night to trap, but hopefully with the wind changing to a more southerly, we can get going soon. The last time I trapped I got just four moths, but it did include a new for the year Early Thorn.

Introductions

Right, lets see if this gets off the ground. I trap in a small suburban garden in north Surrey, and usually use a Skinner trap with a 100w blended bulb. However, so far this year I have not been trapping, as my 100w has been out of action, and am awaiting a 15w Actinic Tube in the post.

I have only been trapping since September last year but have already become addicted to it.
My best catches so far have included Cypress Carpet and Cypress Pug. Without the aid of a trap, I have only caught 6 species of moth this year including Common Quaker which I found in the porch yesterday evening...

Common Quaker- 20th April

Due to GCSEs, I won't be trapping as much as I would like to, but hopefully with other contributors' help, we can make this a useful resource! ... a bit too optimistic maybe? ;-)

Note to contributors: If you could add photos to your posts that would be great, could you chose 'Large' size and left allignment. Also, in the bottom left corner where you make the post where it says 'Labels', could you write the names of all the species in the photos of that particular post.

Thanks,

Bill