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

Pouring and Prominents

What appaling weather we've been having.  I haven't trapped since March!  I thought it was worth trying last night after a reasonably warm day, although I was sure to fit the rain guard!  I got a nice selection including a new species for the garden.  Unsurprisingly, all but one were year ticks.  The new one was a Swallow Prominent.  I'm used to getting Lesser, but it was nice to get both together.  Unbelievably, despite it being quite a diverse (or be it not that numerous) catch, I didn't get a single Noctuid!

8th May:

5 Brindled Pug

3 Lesser Swallow Prominent NFY

1 Swallow Prominent NFG

1 Brimstone NFY

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet NFY

1 Waved Umber NFY

1 Peppered Moth NFY

1 Great Prominent NFY

1 Grey Pine Carpet NFY

1 Purple Thorn NFY

1 Currant Pug NFY

1 Maiden's Blush NFY

1 Brindled Beauty NFY

I also got loads of Twenty-plume Moths and this micro, Plutella porrectella:

Plutella porrectella

Brimstone

Swallow and Lesser Swallow Prominents

Brindled Beauty

Currant Pug

Great Prominent

Maiden's Blush

Purple Thorn

Peppered Moth

Waved Umber

A brief respite....

Despite all my best intentions to put a trap out every day I was home, the miserable weather got the better of me.  But a bright sunshiney day yesterday, and an Early Grey on the office window at work, persuaded me to switch it on last night.  I was quite surprised by what I found this morning:

2 x Frosted Green
1 x Lunar Marbled Brown
1 x Green Carpet
1 x Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 x Maiden's Blush
 1 x Pebble Hook-tip

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Maiden's Blush

Pebble Hook-tip

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!

Pretty Good Weekend So Far...

Study leave has been better than expected, and on the evenings when I haven't been out celebrating the end of school, I've been moth trapping for most of the night- like any normal teenager! ;-)

The weather hasn't been brilliant for moths in terms of no cloud cover... but the wind is low and the temperatures are high so I've been getting quite a few moths in the trap...

1 Light Brocade- Best moth so far this year

1 White Ermine- NFY

1 Maiden's Blush- NFY

1 Pale Tussock

2 Pale Mottled Willow

2 Brimstone

1 Shuttle-shaped Dart

In the way of Micro moths...

1 Bee Moth Aphomia sociella

5 Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana

1 Diurnea fagella

3 Pyrausta aurata- Swept from mint during the day

1 Crambus perlella- Disturbed on lawn

Light Brocade...

Maiden's Blush...

Pale Tussock...

White Ermine...

Brimstone...

And my personal favourite micro- Pyrausta aurata

I won't be waking up to any school tomorrow so it will be another night of moth trapping!