The Tipping Point

Four weeks to go in my current garden, and I hope it can go out on a high, and I'm hoping I can get to a macro year list of 200.  Last nights trapping brought the 2012 total to 190.  Nothing surprising amongst the macros, but a decent showing from the migrants, including a White Point (even though these are now resident in Surrey).  In with the micros were two specimens of the very pretty Caloptilia syringella, which is a lifer for me.  Wasps were again a problem, with at least 10 in and around the trap.

3rd September:
Macros:
25 Large Yellow Underwing
9 Brimstone
7 Lesser Yellow Underwing
4 LBBYU
4 Flounced Rustic
3 Green Carpet
3 Silver Y
3 Square-spot Rustic
2 Snout
2 Willow Beauty
1 Riband Wave
1 Light Emerald
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Flame Carpet
1 Angle Shades
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character NFY
1 Small Phoenix
1 Dark Sword-grass NFY
1 Flame Shoulder
1 Dark Arches
1 Maiden's Blush
1 Marbled Beauty
1 White Point
1 Common Rustic sp.
1 Feathered Gothic NFY

Micros:
5 Light Brown Apple Moth
3 Agriphila geniculea
3 Blastobasis adustella
3 Mother of Pearl
2 Cydia splendana
2 Caloptilia syringella*
1 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
1 Ypsolopha parenthesella
1 Holly Tortrix
1 Eudonia mercurella
1 Garden Rose Tortrix
1 Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner

Caloptilia syringella

Feathered Gothic

White Point

Scorching Scarcities

Well, the April scorcher continues, and this seems to be encouraging a few goodies to show themselves in the garden. I took a little break from trapping for a few days, but that didn't stop the moths coming...

Whilst watering the borders a few days ago, a Buttoned Snout blasted out of the Ivy and luckily landed on the fence where I could pot it up. A garden first, and one of the rarer species I've caught here, although it does seem to have its Surrey stronghold in the gardens of the North-east of the county...

On the 20th, I caught a single Cydia strobilella flying in the afternoon sun. This is another Surrey notable, recorded from just 5 sites, but is probably under-recorded. There is also a Norway Spruce, its footplant, two doors down, which might explain its presence...

Back out with the 15w Actinic last night, and it was a good haul with 24 species. The highlights being...

Ochreous Pug...

Grey Dagger agg.

 Waved Umber...

Brimstone...

Caloptilia syringella...

Caloptilia populetorum...

... as well as a Small Dusty Wave and Swammerdarnia pyrella, both of which were a bit camera shy.

Not exactly a highlight, but we have been getting quite a few Twenty-plume Moths in the house when I haven't been trapping, and up until now I have never bothered to photograph them. Its easy to overlook them from a distance, but when you do look closely, the detail on each feather like plume is quite something...