A Berrylands Bonanza

This last week at the station has easily been the best of the year both in terms of quality and quantity, the macro yearlist now stands at 57 with the highlights of the week including a Small Ranunculus on July 10th, the fourth consecutive year this species has put in an appearance, I've also had in in previous years at Earlsfield and Raynes Park stations so I'm guessing it must be fairly well established in the suburbs. A Cypress Carpet turned up on July 12th, the third station record following on from the two I had last year and the rarest of the lot (in a Berrylands context) a Blue-bordered Carpet, the second station record following on from the first in 2009.





Blue-bordered Carpet





Cypress Carpet





Small Ranunculus



Just when you don't expect it....

...so there I was at about 6.30pm last night getting ready for an evening out, having the usual wardrobe malfunction and throwing a bit of a strop, when my partner calmly announced "I've just seen a moth" and disappeared rapidly out of the door! 


Torn between throwing an even bigger strop and curiosity, curiosity won out.  Turned out to be not any old moth but a Small Ranunculus!  The trap hadn't been on for a few night because of the weather and me being poorly so I can only think it had been attracted to one of the house lights and had found a sheltered spot out of the rain.

Small Ranunculus

So despite the weather we ran the trap last night hoping another might show up but not to be.  Although four September Thorn were a bit of a surprise.

September Thorn

Notables from the Garden

A big improvement in night temperatures over the last few days has resulted in some real quality moths turning up in the garden trap.

It took all morning to identify this very worn little moth as the rare immigrant, Oak Processionary.  Males of the species have occasionally made the hop from mainland Europe, and more recently, larvae of the species is appearing in stretches of Oak woodland in the South, much to the disapproval of many wildlife authorities. The larvae, if present in numbers, can seriously damage Oak trees, and also release hairs that are highly irritable to the skin.

Small Ranunculus has been increasing its range in the South-east ever since it was re-discovered in Britain in 1997, so I guess it was only a matter of time before one turned up in the garden, but it was still a great surprise to walk out to check the trap and find one staring back!

Hoary Footman is another scarce species which is slowly spreading up from the coast, where it has until recently been confined to sea cliffs in the South-west. It is now established in various localities in Surrey, and I caught this individual in the garden on 31st July, a day before Jim Porter caught one just up the road in his Chessington garden.

And a comparison with the much commoner Scarce Footman (foreground)...

This well marked Tree-lichen Beauty on the 1st August represented the 3rd individual I've caught in the garden this year, of this recently established immigrant.

Waved Black, caught on 3rd August...

I thought Plain Pug was chiefly coastal, so it was a bit of a surprise when I caught this moth the other night. It turns out that the species is quite common in the suburbs of south London...