A Pod of Peas at Kempton

I went a fair distance out of my way yesterday evening, as there was a private trapping session with Paul Wheeler at Kempton nature reserve, Sunbury.  I was rather looking forward to it as its a fantastic looking wetland site complete with scrub, woodland, reedbed, and flower meadows, and it was the one of the first times I'd trapped in the suburbs of London, said to have its own unique moth populations.  I was not disappointed, as a nice muggy night produced both quality and quantity to our four traps.  Macro lifers are becoming quite hard to come by, so to get two was amazing.  The typical London suburb moths stole the show with not only Jersey Tigers (I've seen them before in Devon), but at least 5 Tree-lichen Beauty.  The other lifer was the scarce Cream-bordered Green Pea, which is sometimes a migrant, but with 3 seen, its no doubt breeding on the rampant Willow scrub.  A few nice micros too, with the likes of Elachista bisulcella, and Triangle Plume.  All this means that things like White-line Dart and Southern Wainscot barely get a mention (well, now they have!).

17th August, Kempton NR:
Macros:
10 Dingy Footman
3 Lesser Treble-bar
15 Treble-bar
4 Canary-shouldered Thorn
1 Herald
1 Currant Pug
20 Common Wave
2 Old Lady
3 Brimstone
3 Large Yellow Underwing
8 Small Seraphim
3 Double-striped Pug
7 Flame Shoulder
5 Green Carpet
4 Common Carpet
2 Light Emerald
1 Angle Shades
4 Riband Wave
7 LBBYU
3 Ruby Tiger
5 Tree-lichen Beauty
2 Peach Blossom
4 Tawny Speckled Pug
2 Scarce Footman
3 Cream-bordered Green Pea
4 Willow Beauty
2 Dunbar
5 Ear Moth
2 Setaceous Hebrew Character
3 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Iron Prominent
1 Cloaked Minor
2 White-point
2 Straw Underwing
3 White-line Dart
2 Common Rustic
2 Copper Underwing
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Single-dotted Wave
5 Southern Wainscot
1 Least Yellow Underwing
3 Orange Swift
1 Swallow Prominent
2 Yellow Shell
1 Spectacle
1 Common White Wave
2 Jersey Tiger
1 Bright-line Brown-eye
1 Pale Prominent
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Black Arches

Micros:
2 Endothenia marginana
6 Limnaecia phragmitella
4 Agriphila straminella
2 Agriphila geniculea
5 Celypha lacunana
15 Water Veneer
1 Cochylis dubitana*
3 Pammene fasciana
2 Bird-cherry Ermine
1 Lathronympha strigana*
3 Light Brown Apple Moth
1 Chrysoteuchia culmella
2 Small China-mark
10 Catoptria falsella
2 Eudonia mercurella
2 Cydia splendana
2 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
3 Agriphila inquinatella
8 Blastobasis adustella
15 Mother of Pearl
2 Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix
1 Phlyctaenia coronata
2 Skin Moth
1 Acrobasis repandana
1 Batia unitella
1 Agonopterix liturosa*
3 Pyrausta purpuralis
4 Phycita roborella
1 Cochylis atricapitana
3 Carcina quercana
2 Pyrausta aurata
2 Calamotropha paludella
2 Diamond-back Moth
1 Caloptilita alchimiella
1 Acrobasis advenella
2 Ringed China-mark
2 Epinotia ramella*
1 Argyresthia goedartella
1 Triangle Plume
1 Eudonia pallida
1 Cyclamen Tortrix*
1 Elachista bisulsella*
1 Elachista albifrontella*
2 Epinotia nisella
1 Parornix anglicella
1 Scrobipalpa costella*
1 Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix

Total: 98

Cream-bordered Green Peas (and Ringed China-mark)

Jersey Tiger

Tree-lichen Beauty

Agonopterix liturosa

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...



I'm Back!

Apologise for the lack of posting, I came back from holiday about a week ago but have been catching up on things since, and as a result have only managed two trapping sessions this August, on the 15th and 16th.

Year ticks have been relatively slow and steady, with 6 all together over the two day period, bring my garden year list up to 170.

Highlights over the two trapping sessions have included...

Cypress Pug- Year tick, and the 2nd garden record...

Tree-lichen Beauty- My 4th garden record this year was caught on the 16th. This immigrant has, up until recently, been an extremely rare occurance in Britain, but this year seems a particularly good year for the species...

Vine's Rustic- 1st record for the garden caught on the 15th...

Gold Spot- Another 1st for the garden, caught on the 15th, and one of the more stunning moths to pass through the garden...

Cheers,

Bill D

Tree-lichen Beauty

Did my first trapping session in the garden for a number of weeks now.

The trap was full to the brim by 12.30am, with highlights including Small Emerald, Buff Footman and a probably Dingy Footman.

However, it was a brilliant surprise to go out to check the trap at 1am and find a Tree-Lichen Beauty resting by the bulb!! Not quite the extreme rarity it was 10 years ago, there have been a number of recent records in the south of this scarce immigrant, including 12 records from Surrey to suggest possible breeding... but there can't be more than about 50 odd records from Britain (?).

The fact that it also coincided with the arrival of a Rush Veneer, and Orthopygia glaucinalis (which can be an occasional migrant to the south) makes me think that it could be a migrant as opposed to from a breeding population.

Orthopygia glaucinalis...