Beauty is Golden

After two and a half weeks of no trapping in the garden, I was starting to get desperate, so I decided to take a gamble with last night, despite the rainy forecast.  It was wet, very, and that was reflected in the appaling numbers, but luckily, quality was high, with another two garden ticks.  These were a Four-dotted Footman, and a pristine Beautiful Golden Y, along with expected year ticks (plus only my second garden Purple Bar).

17th June:
5 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Heart and Dart
2 Buff Ermine NFY
1 Dark Arches NFY
1 Peppered Moth
1 Minor sp.
1 Four-dotted Footman NFG
1 Vine's Rustic
1 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Figure of 80
1 Purple Bar NFY
1 Beautiful Golden Y NFG
1 Garden Carpet
1 Large Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Small Angle Shades NFY

The only identifiable micros were a Small Magpie and a Diamond-back Moth.

Beautiful Golden Y



Four-dotted Footman

Purple Bar

Large Yellow Underwing

Dark Arches

Small Angle Shades

Heart and Dart

Buff Ermines

6th-7th May.. Button down the Hatches!

Last weekend's perfect warm, cloudy and moist weather (wouldn't it be good if every weekend was like that?) were conditions no self-respecting moth would not be flying in, so I had the trap out on the Friday and the Saturday hoping for a bit more variety.

I was rewarded with a huge range of species, most of them micro moths- taking the garden year list passed the big 100.  I've given myself the task of identifying and recording every single micro I catch, for the 'Smaller Moths of Surrey' atlas to be published in early 2012 (I'm starting to regret this decision!). There are some rewards to doing it, and I've already made a few interesting discoveries as a result of paying more attention to them, but I'll post some micro photos in another post.

First off, a few macro moths caught in the garden last weekend...

Buttoned Snout...

It's not called a Buttoned Snout for nothing...

Yellow-barred Brindle...

Mottled Pug- one of the easier pugs to identify thanks to the pale colouring, and visible dagger projections behind the forewing spot...

 Spectacle...

Maiden's Blush thats probably had a run in with a bird...

 Currant Pug...

Broken-barred Carpet...

Heart & Dart...

Pebble Prominent, a real stunner...

I'll most a few micro moth images in the near future once I've sorted through them all.

Happy mothing!

Number of moths Pale into insignificance....

Numbers remain reasonable, although it was fairly windy last night. In very similar circumstances to yesterday, I got 37 moths of 22 species, and these included a new species for the garden of Pale Oak Beauty, and a new for the year Setaceous Hebrew Character. Also a probable Middle-barred Minor, which is also new for garden.

9th June:

13 Heart and Dart
2 Flame Shoulder
2 May Highflyer
2 Treble Lines
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 White Ermine
1 Grey Pug
1 Scorched Wing
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Iron Prominent
1 Spruce Carpet
1 Pale Tussock
1 Green Carpet
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Garden Carpet
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character NFY
1 Small Phoenix
1 Light Brocade
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Freyer's Pug
1 Pale Oak Beauty NFG
1 Minor sp. (probably Middle-barred Minor NFG)


probable Middle-barred Minor (it wouldn't stay still!)

White Ermine

Flame Shoudler

Heart and Dart

Iron Prominent

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Pale Oak Beauty

A few year-ticks

I had the trap on for a couple of hours last night while our daughter was out at a gig (and therefore a late night).
I watched lots of moths flying around the trap with lots of flies and a bat but there wasn't a great catch.
The following were new for the year:
green carpet

shoulder-striped wainscot


dark sword-grass

heart & dart

grey pine carpet

The dark sword-grass is an immigrant species as is the silver_Y


I also found my first large yellow underwing of the year in the garden earlier.

Not a moth but I was interested to see a dragon-fly larva emerge from our garden pond, climb the wall and 'release' a black-tailed skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum).

31st May- NE Surrey

Had my best trapping session of the year last night, with near perfect conditions.

1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Green Carpet

1 Common Marbled Carpet

2 Triple Lines

1 Silver Y

1 Light Emerald

2 White Ermine

1 Willow Beauty

1 Pale Mottled Willow

1 Heart and Dart

2 Flame Shoulder

In the way of Micros:

6 Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana

2 Pyrausta aurata- Swept from thyme

Grey Pine Carpet...

Green Carpet...

Treble Lines...

Heart and Dart...

A very worn Flame Shoulder...

Light Emerald...

Cheers, Bill