The Whole Hog

An entirely cloudy night meant it was a good idea to trap in the garden, but with a fairly cool day, it was never going to break any records.  Having said that, I got the second best catch of the year in terms of species and individuals.  I thought there were no particular macro highlights at first, but I've just discovered to my great surprise, that Dingy Footman is in fact a garden tick!  Otherwise, just some nice micros.  As I was releasing the moths out of the lounge window as I usually do, a rustling in the bushes below the window caught my attention.  What appeared was a very tame half-grown Hedgehog, hoovering up some of the docile moths!  Cheeky thing.

7th August:
Macros:
19 LBBYU
8 Riband Wave
8 Small Fan-footed Wave
6 Large Yellow Underwing
5 Yellow-barred Brindle
4 Dot Moth
4 Uncertain
4 Common Rustic sp.
3 Willow Beauty
3 Dingy Footman NFG
3 Red Twin-spot Carpet
3 Silver Y
2 Dagger sp.
2 Bright-line Brown-eye
2 Coronet NFY
2 Dark Arches
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Ear Moth
2 True Lover's Knot
2 Scarce Footman
2 Rustic
2 Clay
2 Snout
1 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Iron Prominent
1 Garden Carpet
1 Svennson's Copper Underwing NFY
1 Engrailed
1 Yellow-tail NFY
1 Barred Red NFY
1 July Highflyer
1 Common Carpet
1 Early Thorn
1 Small Rivulet
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Pebble Hook-tip
1 Heart and Dart
1 Beautiful Hook-tip
1 Dunbar
1 Mottled Beauty
1 Common Footman
1 Slender Brindle
1 Pale Prominent
1 Bird's Wing

Micros:
12 Eudonia mercurella
4 Cydia splendana
3 Agriphila straminella
3 Phycita roborella
2 Agriphila tristella
2 Endotrichia flammealis
2 Blastobasis adustella
2 Phlyctaenia coronata
2 Acleris aspersana
1 Bryotropha terrella
1 Chrysoteuchia culmella
1 Dipleurina lacustrata
1 Coleophora sp.
1 Small Magpie
1 Orchard Ermine*
1 Carcina quercana
1 Bryotropha affinis
1 Catoptria pinella
1 Udea prunalis
1 Caloptilia elongella
1 Agapeta hamana
1 Hypsospygia glaucinalis
1 Caloptilia robustella*
1 Eudemis profundana

Hedgehog

Maiden's Blush

Common and Dingy Footman

Coronet

Pale Prominent

Barred Red

A very striking Scoparid, I think its a Eudonia mercurella

Orchard Ermine

Agriphila tristella

Caloptilia robustella

Eudemis profundana

Bits and pieces

While Sean is off-line, I've also been doing little. But I'll post a couple of pix I've taken over the last few days.

Agriphila tristella

Meadow brown - an unusually well marked example

lychnis - found in a red campion plant

small copper

magpie

The Magpie is one of my favourite moths. I saw quite a few when on holiday in Scotland but they are less than annual in my garden and I have been hoping to photograph one ever since I got my current camera (several years ago now). Last night, I didn't have my trap on but I was pleased when a magpie turned up on the outside of our conservatory. This species is similar to the small magpie Eurrhypara hortulata which is a Pyralid (micro), but several sizes larger. I'll post photos of both for comparison. I also found a largish micro at about the same size.
small magpie

magpie moth

Agriphila tristella

20st-21nd July- NE Surrey

Last night (21st) was poor weather wise, with a clear sky, cold temperatures and a bright moon looming over the garden for most of the night. So it didn't come as a surprise that there were few moths in the trap when I turned the light off at 2am.

Luckily though, this Waved Black made up for the poor tally, my first nationally notable moth for the garden...

And this Agriphila tristella made a new addition to the slowly increasing micro list...

The night before was somewhat better, with 34 species, including 7 totally new for the garden, and not 1 but 2 Tree-lichen Beauties! New for the garden were...

Dot Moth

Ruby Tiger

Cloaked Minor

Dusky Sallow

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Bright-line Brown-eye

Swallow-tailed Moth

Dusky Sallow...

Lesser-spotted Pinion...