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

Shears for the great eight

I put a large parasol over the trap last night, because I thought we may get prolonged rain. In the event it was probably just a brief shower or two, which may well have helped keep moth numbers up. One of the better nights in terms of numbers, with 80 moths of 39 species.
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These included a fantastic eight new for the year (including only my second ever Scarce Footman), and one new for the garden in the shape of a worn Dingy Shears. Some nice micros too, including two pretty Honeysuckle feeders (I have a Honeysuckle at the bottom of my small garden), Twenty-plume Moth and Honeysuckle Moth (Ypsolopha dentella).
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20th July:
10 Riband Wave
10 Flame
6 Dunbar
6 Dark Arches
4 Large Yellow Underwing
3 Uncertain
3 Pale Mottled Willow
2 Shuttle-shaped Dart
2 Marbled Beauty NFY
2 Ruby Tiger NFY
2 Heart and Dart
2 Rustic
2 Common White Wave
1 Miller
1 Green Pug
1 Scarce Footman NFY
1 V-pug
1 Svennson's Copper Underwing
1 Light Emerald
1 Dagger sp.
1 Copper Underwing NFY
1 Small Fan-footed Wave NFY
1 Coronet
1 Turnip
1 Poplar Hawk-moth
1 Bright-line Brown-eye NFY
1 Small Rivulet NFY
1 Peppered Moth
1 Buff Arches
1 Dot Moth
1 Barred Red
1 Common Rustic sp.
1 Double Square-spot
1 Fan-foot
1 July Highflyer
1 Engrailed
1 Lesser Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Dingy Shears NFG
1 Buff Ermine
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Macro Garden List: 218
Macro Garden Year List: 162
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Unlike with recent efforts, I am really happy with this set of photos, even if not all are in 'natural' settings.
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Bright-line Brown-eye




Dingy Shears

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Marbled Beauty

Honeysuckle Moth

Ruby Tiger

Scarce Footman

Small Fan-footed Wave

Small Rivulet

Twenty-plume Moth

This and that

Since a malware attack two weeks ago, I've been having all sorts of probs with my computer. I had to reinstall Windows XP. Now my new firewall won't let me view photos on this site. This is a rambling explanation of why I haven't posted recently.
But I've disabled the firewall in order to post a few photos of recent sightings. I have been trying to photo a few micros as this is the last year of fieldwork for the Surrey micro atlas. They are tricky to photograph but some of the larger ones (c 1cm in length) are quite attractive in close-up. Of course, plenty more are just dull brown things which you wouldn't look twice at. So here are a few random photos from late June -- early July.
barred straw

spectacle

Hedya salicella

yellow-tail

scarce footman

Brown house moth (Hofmannophila pseudospretella)

small angle shades

varied coronet

Eucosma cana

Pyhcita roborella

Recurvaria leucatella (a Notable (b) = scarce moth)

21st June- More Quality than Quantity

Last night was no way as good as the night before, although I did get my first Footman for the garden, in the form of a Scarce Footman, distinguishable from the Common Footman by it's more cone shaped posture...

Scarce Footman...

Other moths that were NFY (new for year) were Small Blood-vein and Dwarf Cream Wave, both of which took little notice of the light trap.

Total list...

1 Scarce Footman
4 Treble Brown Spot
10 Riband Wave- Including, embarrassingly, my first record of ssp. aversata for the garden
1 Dwarf Cream Wave
1 Small Dusty Wave
1 Small Blood-vein
1 Blotched Emerald- Another or the same as last nights
2 Dark Arches
5 Heart and Dart
1 Straw Dot
10 Willow Beauty
3 Green Pug

Small Blood-vein...

Dwarf Cream Wave...

My first garden record of the remutata form of Riband Wave...

In the way of micros...

3 Variegated Golden Tortrix- NFY

1 Small Magpie- NFY

10 Green Oak Tortrix

2 Light Brown Apple Moth

2 Barred Fruit Tree Tortrix

Small Magpie...