Hearts, Clubs, Waves, Carpets and other stuff...

I haven't posted on here in quite a while, and there have been too many moths to post full trap reports, so here are a few photos of some of the species that have been turning up in the garden trap through May, and into (a pretty rubbish!) June...

Beautiful Hook-tip (28th May)...

Marbled Brown (28th May)...

Blotched Emerald (29th May)...

Treble Brown Spot (20th May)...

Least Carpet (8th June)...

Dwarf Cream Wave (8th June)...

The Shears (8th June)...

Heart and Club (8th June)...

Flame Shoulder (25th May)

Expect a few more photos in the near future, as I don't think the weather is going to allow for much trapping this weekend, giving me time to make up for a bit of back-blog!

An Umber of Great moths

I have not trapped in the garden for some time, mainly due to the appalling clear weather we have had! I needed a mothing fix, so I went to Oaken Wood last night with Derek Coleman. Conditions were again poor, so I was quite surprised at the number of species we got by 23:30. The best from my point of view was the new species of Barred Umber, but we got a number of scarce species too, such as Great Oak Beauty, Four-dotted Footman, and Orange Moths.

21st May, Oaken Wood:

Green Carpet

Little Emerald

Common Swift

Orange Moth

Birch Mocha

Silver-ground Carpet

Purple Bar

Cream Wave

Treble-bar

Pale Tussock

Brown Silver-lines

Treble Lines

Common Marbled Carpet

Maiden's Blush

Four-dotted Footman

Pale Prominent

Scalloped Hazel

Barred Umber*

Green Silver-lines

Small White Wave

Great Oak Beauty

Marbled Brown

Light Emerald

Clouded Silver

Broken-barred Carpet

Blood Vein

Orange Footman

Treble Brown-spot

Buff Ermine

Oak Hook-tip

White Pinion-spotted

Flame Shoulder

Heart and Dart

Ingrailed Clay

Peacock

Common Pug

Alder Moth

Lobster Moth

Scorched Wing

Poplar Grey

White Ermine

Small Seraphim

Small Dotted Buff

Pale Oak Beauty

Foxglove Pug

Vine's Rustic

Total: 46

Cream Wave (none of us were sure, but thats the decision we came to)

Marbled Brown

Alder Moth

Orange Moth

Birch Mocha

Green Silver-lines

Great Oak Beauty

Barred Umber

Sorry for going off topic again, but I just have to share this shot I got of a Cream-spot Tiger in Brittany last week (There were lots of lepidopteran highlights there, but this was the only one I photographed):

Mega moths!

Wow, what a night, this is what mothing is all about.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning, expecting the trap to be full of water! Amazingly, this area avoided the rain, but got the moths. The final tally of 93 moths of 41 species is massively bigger than anything before, and it took me a couple of hours to sort them out. There were also plenty of Cockchafers and Ichumen wasps in the trap too, and that certainly made the rumage interesting!

The couple of brand new species to me were Broken-barred Carpet and the Seraphim, but there were also loads of new-for-gardens and new-for-years.

5th June:

12 Heart and Dart
9 Common Marbled Carpet
5 Mottled Pug
4 Brown Silver-lines
3 Oak-tree Pug
3 Shuttle-shaped Dart
3 Peppered Moth
3 Flame Shoulder
3 Scorched Wing NFG
3 Green Carpet
3 May Highflyer
3 Common Pug
2 Brimstone
2 Spruce Carpet
2 Minor sp.
2 Heart and Club
2 Buff-tip
2 Pale Prominent
2 Red Twin-spot Carpet
2 Orange Footman
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Light Brocade
2 Flame NFY
2 Treble Lines
1 Small Phoenix
1 probable Grey Pug NFG
1 probable Seraphim NFG
1 Coxcomb Prominent
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Small Serphim
1 Alder Moth
1 Coronet NFY
1 V-Pug NFY
1 Spectacle
1 White Ermine
1 Snout NFY
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Flame Carpet
1 Marbled Brown NFG
1 Broken-barred Carpet NFG
1 Rustic NFY
1 White-spotted Pug

V-Pug

The Flame

Small Seraphim

probable Seraphim

Scorched Wing

Rustic

faded Red Twin-spot Carpet

Minor (probably Marbled)

Marbled Brown (honestly!)

Coronet

Broken-barred Carpet,

Chafers don't Hog precedings at Norbury Park

I just had to be away for the week when it started to warm up didn't I! As a result I have not trapped in my garden for ages (I'll hopefully rectify that this evening), but I managed to get a fix from the mothing drug last night, and what a dramatic one it was.

I went to Norbury Park and trapped til 1am with David Gardner. The main surprise of the night was the shear number of Cockchafers. I think we got to about 50 come the end! They really were quite an inconvenience to say the least. Halfway through the night we also had a visit from a Hedgehog, and we were willing it over to help us clear the trap of Beetles!

Onto the moths, and we got 37 macros in the end, including a few surprises. I managed to get eight brand new species during the course of the night too. An interesting haul of Great Prominent also.

The final list (* is new to me):

Mocha

Coronet (a dark form)

Treble Lines*

Small White Wave* x 5

Mottled Pug

Brindled Pug x 3

Pebble Hook-tip x 2

Common Carpet x 2

Pale Tussock x 3

Purple Bar x 2

Clay Triple-lines x 2

Nut-tree Tussock x 4

Brown Silver-lines* x 2

Red-green Carpet

Small Waved Umber x 2

Water Carpet

Scalloped Hazel x 2

Currant Pug*

Treble-bar

Marbled Brown* x 6

Common White Wave

Coxcomb Prominent x 2

Silver-ground Carpet*

White Ermine
Pale Prominent

Flame Shoulder x 2

Oak Nycteoline

Scorched Carpet x 2

Least Black Arches x 2

Flame Carpet x 2

Brimestone x 5

Red Twin-spot Carpet x 4

Great Prominent x 10

Green Carpet x 16

Pretty Chalk Carpet

Waved Umber* x 2
White-pinion Spotted* x 7

Apologies for the poor shots, they were very much done on the spur of the moment.

Our late night visitor...

Waved Umber

Small White Wave

Pretty Chalk Carpet

White-pinion Spotted

Pebble Hook-tip

Pale Tussock

Oak Nycteoline

The Mocha

Marbled Brown

Great Prominent

Green Carpet

Coxcomb Prominent

Clay Triple-lines

Cockchafers

The full trap!