All's Rosy, as I find the Red-neck of the Grove

I thought it might be worth popping up the road yesterday evening to a small woodland called Holmen's Grove, as its a previously (as far as I know) unsurveyed site.  According to the forecast, there would only be a small window of oppurtunity between the clear skies and the heavy rain, but I thought I may as well give it a go for an hour or two, as the habitat looked really nice (Nightingale and Woodcock present for instance).

The cloud cover was there as forecast, but incredibly, I got to 12:30 with no rain.  This leant itself to a quality night for moths, and boy was it.   I had to pack up early, as I had work the next day, but I would have stayed longer if I could.  As it was, I was woken up at around 4:00 by the rain lashing down outside!

There was a constant stream of moths towards the end of the session after a slow start.  I managed three macro lifers, including a stonking Red-necked Footman!  The others were a very worn moth that I am pretty confident is a Brindled White-spot, and three Rosy Marbled.  I was delighted I was able to pick out the latter without first taking a skim through the micro book!

A few micro ticks were got too including Brown China-mark, Dipleurina (was Eudonia) lacustrana and Ptocheuusa paupella.

20th June, Holmen's Grove (* = lifer):
2 Grey Pine Carpet
6 Common Swift
11 Scorparia ambigualis
5 Straw Dot
3 Brown Silver-line
3 Celypha lacunana
1 Emmetia marginea*
4 Green Oak Tortrix
1 Willow Beauty
2 Brown China-mark*
4 Mottled Beauty
2 Udea olivalis
2 Green Carpet
1 Nematopogon metaxella*
2 Tinea semifulvella
1 Large Fruit-tree Tortrix*
1 Ptocheuusa paupella*
1 Beautiful Hook-tip
2 Small Seraphim
1 Bramble Shoot Moth
4 Light Emerald
3 Common Carpet
1 Middle-barred Minor
1 Beautiful Golden Y (pristine specimen!)
2 Orange Footman
2 Common White Wave
1 Scalloped Hook-tip
2 Spruce Carpet
1 Scorched Wing
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Blood Vein
1 Red-necked Footman *
1 Epinotia demarniana*
1 Brimstone
1 Poplar Grey
1 Agapeta hamana
2 Purple Clay
1 Peach Blossom
1 Red-barred Tortrix*
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
1 Maiden's Blush
1 Fan-foot
1 Blotched Emerald
1 Peppered Moth
2 Small Angle Shades
1 Marbled White-spot
1 Dwarf Pug
1 Foxglove Pug
3 Rosy Marbled*
1 Brindled White-spot*
1 Dipleurina lacustrana*
1 Carpatolechia proximella*
1 Lobster Moth
1 Satin Lutestring
1 Flame
1 Barred Yellow
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 White Ermine
1 Holly Tortrix
1 Dusky Brocade
Total: 59

Red-necked Footman

Rosy Marbled

Brindled White-spot (it was more confincing in the flesh, honest!)

Brown China-mark

Blood Vein

Purple Clay no. 1

Purple Clay no. 2 (decent shout for Square-spotted Clay?)

Peach Blossom

Oak-tree Pug (it was tiny!)

Dipleurina lacustrana

Thats what mothing is all about!!

Hook-tips and Highflyers

Just a quick selection of highlights from the garden trap in the past week. No doubt more to come...

Oak Hook-tip

Oak-tree Pug; note the rounded discal spot, and the more compact wing shape. Unusually, Oak-tree is one of the most common moths in my trap at this time of year, vastly outnumbering all other Pugs...

Light Brocades are also regulars in late spring, but I've never seen one with a wing deformity like this...

May Highflyer...

Lime Hawk-moth, always a favourite with the family!

Anyone want my Brindleds?

Yet another scorching day, so I had to give the trap a go in the garden last night, despite still clear skies. Once I got to the trap, I was just about able to force my way through the floods of Brindled Pugs to find something different! A first for the garden was awaiting, as a Red Chestnut appeared, along with my second record of Oak-tree Pug. A little more variety in terms of species, but Brindleds aside, still not great numbers.

23rd April:

91 Brindled Pug (just an estimate if truth be told!)

4 Oak-tree Pug NFY

4 Hebrew Character

3 Clouded Drab

2 Common Quaker

2 Shuttle-shaped Dart

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Garden Carpet NFY

1 Frosted Green

1 Red Chestnut NFG

Red Chestnut (I tried to use a torch to improve the light, but its just saturated it)

Oak-tree Pug

Three of my four Oak-tree Pugs

No Sloe but quite a show

I went on my first field trapping session of the year last night, as it had been a hot day. I visited Bookham Common with Paul Wheeler in the hope of Sloe Carpet. There's wonderful habitat there, with massive Blackthorn thickets everywhere, too early for the Nightingales too! Despite this, we had a great night, and in just two hours (it got cold under the clear sky very quickly) we managed 19 macro moths, and a load of micros too. These included species that I had not expected to be out yet, and three new species for me. A Small Brindled Beauty was quite late, we had an Early Tooth-striped, and two Red Chestnuts. We also discovered some Brown Hairstreak eggs that had been marked by someone with some string. Quite a night!

6th April, Bookham Common:

9 Water Carpet

7 Common Quaker

6 Scorched Carpet

3 Clouded Drab

3 Frosted Green

2 Small Quaker

2 Red Chestnut*

2 Shoulder Stripe

2 Brindled Pug

2 Hebrew Character

1 Early Thorn

1 Streamer

1 Satellite

1 Engrailed

1 Small Brindled Beauty*

1 Oak Beauty

1 Early Tooth-striped*

1 Nut-tree Tussock

1 Oak-tree Pug

Water Carpet

Small Brindled Beauty

Shoulder Stripe

Scorched Carpet

Red Chestnut

Oak-tree Pug

Oak Beauty

Early Tooth-striped

Oak-tree Pug

My mystery pug was confirmed by the Surrey CR; Graham Collins as an Oak-tree Pug today. A respectable county record and a welcome surprise!

Bill