The Whole Hog

An entirely cloudy night meant it was a good idea to trap in the garden, but with a fairly cool day, it was never going to break any records.  Having said that, I got the second best catch of the year in terms of species and individuals.  I thought there were no particular macro highlights at first, but I've just discovered to my great surprise, that Dingy Footman is in fact a garden tick!  Otherwise, just some nice micros.  As I was releasing the moths out of the lounge window as I usually do, a rustling in the bushes below the window caught my attention.  What appeared was a very tame half-grown Hedgehog, hoovering up some of the docile moths!  Cheeky thing.

7th August:
Macros:
19 LBBYU
8 Riband Wave
8 Small Fan-footed Wave
6 Large Yellow Underwing
5 Yellow-barred Brindle
4 Dot Moth
4 Uncertain
4 Common Rustic sp.
3 Willow Beauty
3 Dingy Footman NFG
3 Red Twin-spot Carpet
3 Silver Y
2 Dagger sp.
2 Bright-line Brown-eye
2 Coronet NFY
2 Dark Arches
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Ear Moth
2 True Lover's Knot
2 Scarce Footman
2 Rustic
2 Clay
2 Snout
1 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Iron Prominent
1 Garden Carpet
1 Svennson's Copper Underwing NFY
1 Engrailed
1 Yellow-tail NFY
1 Barred Red NFY
1 July Highflyer
1 Common Carpet
1 Early Thorn
1 Small Rivulet
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Pebble Hook-tip
1 Heart and Dart
1 Beautiful Hook-tip
1 Dunbar
1 Mottled Beauty
1 Common Footman
1 Slender Brindle
1 Pale Prominent
1 Bird's Wing

Micros:
12 Eudonia mercurella
4 Cydia splendana
3 Agriphila straminella
3 Phycita roborella
2 Agriphila tristella
2 Endotrichia flammealis
2 Blastobasis adustella
2 Phlyctaenia coronata
2 Acleris aspersana
1 Bryotropha terrella
1 Chrysoteuchia culmella
1 Dipleurina lacustrata
1 Coleophora sp.
1 Small Magpie
1 Orchard Ermine*
1 Carcina quercana
1 Bryotropha affinis
1 Catoptria pinella
1 Udea prunalis
1 Caloptilia elongella
1 Agapeta hamana
1 Hypsospygia glaucinalis
1 Caloptilia robustella*
1 Eudemis profundana

Hedgehog

Maiden's Blush

Common and Dingy Footman

Coronet

Pale Prominent

Barred Red

A very striking Scoparid, I think its a Eudonia mercurella

Orchard Ermine

Agriphila tristella

Caloptilia robustella

Eudemis profundana

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

Clay confusion at Norbury

Conditions were much better tonight, with the temperature still at 21C when we started trapping at Norbury Park at 9:30! A much more diverse catch than yesterday was achieved, although quality was slightly lacking, but we still had a great time. 60 macros were caught up to 1:00, with the best probably being several Triple-spotted Clays. Although, I think the comparison shot below shows two Double Square-spot (they looked very different at the time)!

Norbury Park, 25th June:

Yellow Shell

Mottled Beauty

Brown Scallop

July Highflyer

Burnished Brass

Riband Wave

Heart and Club

Snout

Treble Brown-spot

Common Marbled Carpet

Common Emerald

V-Pug

Minor Shoulder-knot

Rosy Footman

Flame

Double Square-spot

Large Yellow Underwing

Dark Arches

Double-striped Pug

Common White Wave

Light Emerald

Beautiful Hook-tip

Privet Hawk

Buff Footman

August Thorn

Triple-spotted Clay*

Dark Umber

Small Angle Shades

Iron Prominent

Brimstone

Beautiful Golden Y

Coronet

Light Arches

Peppered Moth

Brown Silver-line

Green Pug

Elephant Hawk

Dunbar

Flame Shoulder

Lobster

Heart and Dart

Reddish Light Arches

Rustic

Clouded Silver

Black Arches

Engrailed

Foxglove Pug

Treble Lines

Turnip

Short-cloaked

Common Wave

Uncertain

Brown Rustic

Swallowtail

Peach Blossom

Willow Beauty

Leopard

Great Oak Beauty

Satin Beauty

Short-cloaked

Festoon

Leopard

Privet Hawk

Coronet

Swallowtail

Clay comparison(?)

A rather Buff catch

A reasonably good catch last night, although it would be nice if the warm airflow returns. 42 moths of 25 species included a Buff Ermine which is new for the garden, and a Sycamore which is only my second, also a very smart fresh Coronet. Nice to get some more Hawk moths too.

8th June:

12 Heart and Dart
3 May Highflyer
2 Broken-barred Carpet
2 Garden Carpet
2 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Common Pug
1 Lime Hawk-moth
1 Poplar Hawk-moth
1 Coronet
1 Sycamore NFY
1 Scorched Wing
1 Buff-tip
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Spruce Carpet
1 Red Twin-spot Carpet
1 Heart and Club
1 Mottled Pug
1 Light Brocade
1 Scalloped Hazel
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Green Carpet
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Peppered Moth
1 Buff Ermine NFG
1 White-spotted Pug

Coronet

Sycamore

Buff Ermine

Mega moths!

Wow, what a night, this is what mothing is all about.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning, expecting the trap to be full of water! Amazingly, this area avoided the rain, but got the moths. The final tally of 93 moths of 41 species is massively bigger than anything before, and it took me a couple of hours to sort them out. There were also plenty of Cockchafers and Ichumen wasps in the trap too, and that certainly made the rumage interesting!

The couple of brand new species to me were Broken-barred Carpet and the Seraphim, but there were also loads of new-for-gardens and new-for-years.

5th June:

12 Heart and Dart
9 Common Marbled Carpet
5 Mottled Pug
4 Brown Silver-lines
3 Oak-tree Pug
3 Shuttle-shaped Dart
3 Peppered Moth
3 Flame Shoulder
3 Scorched Wing NFG
3 Green Carpet
3 May Highflyer
3 Common Pug
2 Brimstone
2 Spruce Carpet
2 Minor sp.
2 Heart and Club
2 Buff-tip
2 Pale Prominent
2 Red Twin-spot Carpet
2 Orange Footman
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Light Brocade
2 Flame NFY
2 Treble Lines
1 Small Phoenix
1 probable Grey Pug NFG
1 probable Seraphim NFG
1 Coxcomb Prominent
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Small Serphim
1 Alder Moth
1 Coronet NFY
1 V-Pug NFY
1 Spectacle
1 White Ermine
1 Snout NFY
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Flame Carpet
1 Marbled Brown NFG
1 Broken-barred Carpet NFG
1 Rustic NFY
1 White-spotted Pug

V-Pug

The Flame

Small Seraphim

probable Seraphim

Scorched Wing

Rustic

faded Red Twin-spot Carpet

Minor (probably Marbled)

Marbled Brown (honestly!)

Coronet

Broken-barred Carpet,