No mercury Vapour, but good old trap delivers

Another excellent weather night produced a load of new for the years in the garden. Best however, was the garden tick of a Vapourer. I thought I might get this in the garden at some point, but I expected it to be a fly-by during the day, perhaps whilst holding a vigil at the Buddleia for Humming-bird Hawk (which I have been doing a bit recently, without success so far).

July 27th:
13 Dark Arches
10 Large Yellow Underwing
7 Common Rustic sp.
6 Dunbar
4 Uncertain
4 Shuttle-shaped Dart
3 Heart and Dart
2 Willow Beauty
2 Antler NFY
1 Riband Wave
1 Vapourer NFG
1 Small Rivulet NFY
1 Buff Ermine
1 Rosy Footman NFY
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Light Arches
1 July Highflyer
1 Rosy Minor NFY
1 Rustic
1 Smoky Wainscot
1 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
1 Clay
1 Spectacle NFY
1 Double Square-spot

Rosy Minor

Spectacle

Rosy Footman

Antler

Vapourer

A Beautiful Range of moths

An impromptu trapping session on the edge of the Pirbright Ranges near West End last night gave me an early oppurtunity to run my new trap. In what was probably the best night of the year in terms of conditions, we ran four traps, and managed a string of quality moths, and great numbers too. The only thing missing was a lifer! Several species were my second ever sightings, but the best was probably several Ling Pugs. This is not a true lifer, as it is considered just a form of Wormwood Pug. We also got several Beautiful Yellow Underwings, which is my first proper sighting (I got a glimpse of one in a trap last year at Dawney's Hill, but it presumably escaped).

26th July, Pirbright Ranges:

Yellow Shell

Dunbar

Small Fan-footed Wave

Pine Hawk

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Ling Pug

Flame Shoulder

Scarce Footman

True Lover's Knot

Single-dotted Wave

Narrow-winged Pug

Ruby Tiger

Least Yellow Underwing

Slender Brindle

Clouded Border

Rustic

Common Emerald

Common White Wave

Drinker

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Common Carpet

Willow Beauty

Striped Wainscot

Sharp-angled Carpet

Scalloped Hook-tip

Uncertain

Plain Wave

Snout

Antler Moth

Black Arches

Smoky Wainscot

Riband Wave

Kent Black Arches

Light Emerald

Common Footman

Buff Footman

Cloaked Minor

Small Scallop

Large Yellow Underwing

Rosy Footman

Dark Arches

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Common Rustic

July Highflyer

Peppered Moth

Mottled Beauty

Least Carpet

Lesser Cream Wave

Clay

Dotted Border Wave

Large Emerald

September Thorn

Maiden's Blush

Engrailed

Small Purple-barred

Iron Prominent

Double Kidney

Sharp-angled Peacock

Total: 59

My trap in action

Small Scallop

Small Purple-barred

Sharp-angled Peacock

Sharp-angled Carpet

Ling Pug

Least Carpet

Horse Chestnut (with Clouded Border)

Double Kidney

Beautiful Yellow Underwing (certainly lives up to its name!)

Antler Moth

Caught on the Antlers of a dilemma

On the 17th August, I had a fantastic night in the garden. The variety was the best for some time with 89 moths of 33 species. These included one year tick, one overdue garden tick and a further brand new species to me, as well as a potential second. The most stunning was an Antler Moth, a species that perhaps wandered from the heathland. The new garden species was two Yellow Shell - long overdue. But, better than that was a possible Hoary Footman. I personally cannot rule out a worn Scarce, so I would like your opinions.
.

17th August:

13 Dunbar

9 Shuttle-shaped Dart

8 LBBYU

7 Common Rustic sp.

6 Large Yellow Underwing

6 Copper Underwing

4 Vine's Rustic

4 Brimstone

3 Riband Wave

3 Svensson's Copper Underwing

3 Willow Beauty

2 Double-striped Pug

2 Yellow Shell NFG

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Small Rivulet

1 Maiden's Blush

1 Silver Y

1 Iron Prominent

1 Small Fan-footed Wave

1 Currant Pug

1 Common Carpet

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Yellow-barred Brindle

1 Turnip

1 Lesser Swallow Prominent

1 Cloaked Minor

1 Cabbage Moth

1 Pine Carpet NFY

1 Scalloped Oak

1 Antler Moth NFG

1 poss Hoary Footman NFG

.

Pine Carpet
Antler Moth
Hoary Footman?
View of underwing (I had to put my finger on it for it to unfurl its wings)
Yellow Shell

Slowing down

I ran the trap overnight on 18th but there wasn't a great catch. Mind you, the fact that there were 20+ hornets meant that some of the moths were not in great shape. The highlight was a new for garden antler moth. This species is very common in parts of northern Britain, but this appears to be the first record for my 10 Kms square (TQ34) for nearly 30 years!
A few photos follow:

Not a great pic, but illustrating the difference between canary-shouldered thorn and September thorn.

square-spot rustic

angle-shades - surprisingly my first of the year!

antler moth

Pyrausta aurata (rather faded)

Pyrausta purpuralis (much fresher - the hindwing pattern is the key difference from P aurata)