Cloudy but not Drab

Nothing to right home about last night, but it was great to get two more true spring species, Clouded Drab and Small Quaker.

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27th Feb:

3 Chestnut

2 Clouded Drab NFY

1 Pale Brindled Beauty

1 Small Quaker NFY

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Clouded Drab

Small Quaker

More than I bargained for!

Like others, I've been taking advantage of the very unseasonal weather to pop the moth trap out in the garden. To be honest, I didn't expect to be as successful as I have been, with a total of 15 species recorded (and god knows how many individuals!) over the past 3 days, bringing the 2012 garden moth list to 20... a figure that wasn't reached until 22nd March last year. Perhaps a sign of things to come?
Here's the list so far:

Dark Chestnut
Chestnut
March Moth
Common Quaker
Small Quaker
Clouded Drab
Small Brindled Beauty
Pale Brindled Beauty
Winter Moth
Spring Usher
Tachystola acroxantha
Epiphyas postvittana
Carpatolechia decorella
Ypsolopha ustella
Tortricodes alternella
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
Emmelina monodactyla
Agonopterix heracliana
Mompha subbistrigella
Acleris cristana

Small Quaker, 1 of 3...

Small Quaker w/ big brother, the Common Quaker...

Spring Usher...

March Moth...

Small Brindled Beauty, the most numerous moth in the trap at present...

Pale Brindled Beauty, a belated garden first...

A gang of 'Beauties'...

Clouded Drab...

Dark Chestnut, a first for the garden...

Carpatolechia decorella...

Mompha subbistrigella...

Ysolopha ustella...

Emmelina monodactyla...

Not exactly a moth, but the thin crescent of the moon was looking nice on Friday night...

Happy mothing!

Species steadily building up

New species are beginning to appear more frequently now. I had about 60 moths last night. A couple of oak beauties, small brindled beauty, umpteen small quakers, several common quakers and the following new for the year:

Yellow horned


Hebrew character

Early grey

clouded drab

Odds and Ends

I haven't got round to trapping yet in March, and with the lawn due to be re-seeded, it looks like I will have to trap on the patio for the next month or so, which will probably lower the moth totals. At the moment though, I'm still catching up with a few moths from February...

I caught this micro in the garden on the 24th, and it was confirmed by the CR and John Langmaid as Agonopterix scopariella. It is a local species in Britain, and very scarce in Surrey, with this making the 11th modern record. The paler overall colour rules out heracliana, and subpropinquella and atomella do not show 2 white spots on each wing like this individual does...

This Chestnut was an added bonus when sorting out egg boxes, and must have got trapped in between them when I packed them away, resulting in a damaged hindwing. A belated garden first...

Another garden first, this Clouded Drab saved me from a night in with just the Hebrews and Quakers on the 25th! ...

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.