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

Common species, but garden ticks!

Promising looking conditions last night of constant cloud produce good numbers, but not anything particularly unusual. I did however get the long-overdue garden ticks of Single-dotted Wave and Common Footman.

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7th July:

10 Riband Wave

9 Heart and Dart

8 Uncertain

4 Clouded Silver

4 Dark Arches

3 Coronet

3 Flame

3 Dunbar

2 Green Pug

2 Dot Moth

2 Willow Beauty

2 Common White Wave

2 Burnished Brass NFY

2 Double-striped Pug

2 Heart and Club

2 Minor Shoulder-knot

1 Rustic

1 Common Footman NFG

1 Minor sp.

1 Double Square-spot

1 Dagger sp.

1 Light Arches

1 Common Lutestring

1 Buff Arches

1 Brimstone

1 Single-dotted Wave NFG

1 Garden Carpet

1 Clay

1 Brown Silver-line

Garden Year list: 147

Garden list: 217

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Burnished Brass

Common Footman

Single-dotted Wave

24th-26th June

It's been a good last few nights with some real stunners turning up in the trap, not least getting my second and third Hawkmoth species for the garden, Elephant and Lime respectfully...

My garden macro list for the year has increased to 67, and combined with the micros (that I have identified), my total garden moth list for the year is 87. Other new moths for the year over the period of 24th to 26th June were:

• Leopard Moth
• Blue-bordered Carpet
• Heart and Club
• Peppered Moth
• Marbled White Spot
• Common Carpet
• Barred Red
• Buff Ermine
• Foxglove Pug
• The Fan-Foot
• The Short-cloaked
• Common Footman
• Middle-barred Minor

Elephant Hawk-moth (a stunner)...

And a close up of that mouth watering colouring...

Lime Hawk-moth...

Leopard Moth...

Common Footman...

The Fan-Foot...