Quiet night last night

I'd expected a few more moths this morning but not to be......

2 Pale Brindled Beauty
1 Chestnut
1 Common Quaker
1 Small Quaker

Common Quaker

Small Quaker

Tonight is looking promising though....making a good start out there already.

Nice to get some moths!

I trapped a couple of nights ago, and got nothing. Last night was not as warm, but I decided to trap anyway. Amazingly, I got 10 moths (+ a few micros)! Presumably, this is because it took a few nights of warmer temps to persuade moths to hatch out, or leave thier hibernation places. Nothing new for the garden, but some nice species.

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24th Feb:

3 Chestnut

2 Spring Usher

2 Common Quaker

1 Dotted Border

1 Satellite

1 March Moth

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Sorry about the ugly black rectangles, but I am using my new laptop, and I haven't got quite used to the photo editing software yet!

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Spring Usher

Satellite

March Moth

Dotted Border

Common Quaker

April show-ers

This warm weather is encouraging more moths to emerge. There were large swarms of long-horn moths on our local oak trees. They were too high to photograph but could well have been Nematapogon swammerdamella. Below is a selection that came to my trap last night:

purple thorn

nut-tree tussock

iron prominent

flame shoulder

common quaker (a worn specimen which at first glance looked rather like a powdered quaker)

brimstone

And a waved umber from a couple of nights ago...

The Twin-spot Spring

Last night seemed ideal once again with nice cloudy skies following a hot day, and I managed to get more than yesterday. Again nothing ground breaking, but it was nice to get two Twin-spotted Quaker. Otherwise I got the same 6 species as the previous night, but 41 individuals this time. I also got a nice plume, but as usual I don't have a clue at the species (now identified as Emmelina monodactyla, thanks Dean).
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15th March:

17 Common Quaker

10 Small Quaker

6 Hebrew Character

4 Clouded Drab

2 Twin-spotted Quaker

1 Early Grey

1 March Moth

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Common Quakers

Emmelina monodactyla

Early Grey

Twin-spotted Quakers

More early moths

This mild spell has clearly got the moths out - I've had one or two that I wouldn't normally expect to see in February.


small quaker


small brindled beauty


shoulder stripe



oak beauty


larva of large yellow underwing (Noctua pronuba)

common quaker

New Year, New Moths

Common Quaker...

Spring Usher...

Ypsolopha ustella...

So far here in NE Surrey, I've managed 3 species in the garden this year. All have been caught in the recent 'mild' spell that we have been experiencing in the last week, which has probably enticed this Common Quaker to take to the wing earlier than usual. Ypsolopha ustella and Spring Usher are both new species for the garden, and it will be interesting to see what else I can catch, as this will be the first time I've trapped in winter/early spring before.

I'm planning on building a funnel-type moth trap to replace my Skinner trap this coming weekend, which with any luck will perform better, and retain more moths. The more moths the better!

Introductions

Right, lets see if this gets off the ground. I trap in a small suburban garden in north Surrey, and usually use a Skinner trap with a 100w blended bulb. However, so far this year I have not been trapping, as my 100w has been out of action, and am awaiting a 15w Actinic Tube in the post.

I have only been trapping since September last year but have already become addicted to it.
My best catches so far have included Cypress Carpet and Cypress Pug. Without the aid of a trap, I have only caught 6 species of moth this year including Common Quaker which I found in the porch yesterday evening...

Common Quaker- 20th April

Due to GCSEs, I won't be trapping as much as I would like to, but hopefully with other contributors' help, we can make this a useful resource! ... a bit too optimistic maybe? ;-)

Note to contributors: If you could add photos to your posts that would be great, could you chose 'Large' size and left allignment. Also, in the bottom left corner where you make the post where it says 'Labels', could you write the names of all the species in the photos of that particular post.

Thanks,

Bill