A Sprucey bonus

Last night looked quite promising, as a day of temps reaching 23, ended with a little cloud. In the event, the garden trapping was a little disappointing, particularly with overall numbers. At least I got more than the last two nights. Only a few new for the year to shout about, but these included some nice species, including only my third Spruce Carpet.

July 11th:

12 Uncertain

4 Riband Wave

4 Double Square-spot

4 Dark Arches

3 Heart and Dart

3 Rustic

2 Mottled Beauty

2 Buff Ermine

1 Barred Red NFY

1 Scarce Footman NFY

1 Green Pug

1 Light Arches

1 Tawny-barred Angle

1 Ear Moth NFY

1 Beautiful Hook-tip

1 Dunbar

1 Heart and Club

1 Coronet NFY

1 Silver Y NFY

1 Dot Moth

1 Turnip

1 Marbled White Spot

1 Spruce Carpet NFY

and some nice micros.

Common White Plume

Pyrausta aurata

Coronet

Ear Moth

Scarce Footman

Spruce Carpet

Buff Ermine variation

Slowing down

I ran the trap overnight on 18th but there wasn't a great catch. Mind you, the fact that there were 20+ hornets meant that some of the moths were not in great shape. The highlight was a new for garden antler moth. This species is very common in parts of northern Britain, but this appears to be the first record for my 10 Kms square (TQ34) for nearly 30 years!
A few photos follow:

Not a great pic, but illustrating the difference between canary-shouldered thorn and September thorn.

square-spot rustic

angle-shades - surprisingly my first of the year!

antler moth

Pyrausta aurata (rather faded)

Pyrausta purpuralis (much fresher - the hindwing pattern is the key difference from P aurata)

Micro interest

In the first of my retrospective posts, I go back to 5th August in the garden: Not a great deal on the night, but amongst 45 moths of 17 species was my second Scalloped Hook-tip, and a noctuid which had me confused, til I realised it was a small Cabbage. Also a couple of interesting micros.

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5th August:

12 Dunbar

11 Common Rustic sp.

5 Riband Wave

4 Shuttle-shaped Dart

2 Red Twin-spot Carpet

1 Scalloped Hook-tip

1 Herald

1 Ear

1 Turnip

1 Copper Underwing

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Dark Arches

1 LBBYU

1 Small Rivulet

1 Cabbage

1 Large Yellow Underwing

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Pyrausta aurata

An unknown bold micro (I got two of these)

Garden Pebble
Cabbage Moth

Mega numbers make up for Minor pain

In seemingly unpromising conditions, and circumstances, I got my best catch this year in terms of number of individuals (94), but oddly, a rather low species count of 26 (this was not down to Large Yellow Underwing as it would usually be - I got only one!).
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Amongst these were one new for the garden, and two other year ticks. The new garden species was an unsurprising one really, two Cloaked Minor. I also got another Scallop Shell, which I was happy to get a decent shot of this time. Some pretty micros present too. The difficult circumstances mentioned before were that 6-7 wasps were present in/around the trap, and whilst checking the light first thing this morning, one suddenly lunged at me and stung me on the chest (they ate one of my Buff Ermines too)! It was worth it in the end though.
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28th July:
19 Dunbar
12 Riband Wave
10 Common Rustic sp.
7 Flame
7 Dark Arches
6 Shuttle-shaped Dart
4 Double Square-spot
4 Rustic
3 Uncertain
2 Lesser Swallow Prominent NFY
2 Svensson's Copper Underwing
2 July Highflyer
2 Cloaked Minor NFG
2 Copper Underwing
2 Buff Ermine
1 Oak Hook-tip
1 Scallop Shell
1 Yellow-barred Brindle
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Poplar Hawk-moth
1 Rosy Minor
1 Large Yellow Underwing
1 Vine's Rustic NFY
1 Small Fan-footed Wave
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Cochylis atricapitana

Oegoconia quadripuncta/deauratella

Pyrausta aurata

Common Rustic sp. (this was very bold in the flesh, more like a Dot Moth)

Vine's Rustic (not 100% certain)

Lesser Swallow Prominents

Scallop Shell

Cloaked Minor

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!