Beauty is Golden

After two and a half weeks of no trapping in the garden, I was starting to get desperate, so I decided to take a gamble with last night, despite the rainy forecast.  It was wet, very, and that was reflected in the appaling numbers, but luckily, quality was high, with another two garden ticks.  These were a Four-dotted Footman, and a pristine Beautiful Golden Y, along with expected year ticks (plus only my second garden Purple Bar).

17th June:
5 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Heart and Dart
2 Buff Ermine NFY
1 Dark Arches NFY
1 Peppered Moth
1 Minor sp.
1 Four-dotted Footman NFG
1 Vine's Rustic
1 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Figure of 80
1 Purple Bar NFY
1 Beautiful Golden Y NFG
1 Garden Carpet
1 Large Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Small Angle Shades NFY

The only identifiable micros were a Small Magpie and a Diamond-back Moth.

Beautiful Golden Y



Four-dotted Footman

Purple Bar

Large Yellow Underwing

Dark Arches

Small Angle Shades

Heart and Dart

Buff Ermines

23rd-28th July, NE Surrey

Caught in the garden 15W Actinic between 23rd and 28th...

A colourful Oak Hook-tip...

A very pretty Sallow Kitten...

My long awaited first Wainscot for the garden, a Smoky Wainscot...

The garden year list has now risen to 165, and a number of common species have been reaching record numbers, including Dark Arches, the example depicted showing extra large lower kidney marks...

This female Turnip Moth had me thinking it was something different for some time..

I'm starting to take more of interest in micros. Here are two new for years from 27th...

Clepsis consimilana...

Codling Moth..

I'm going to be taking a break from trapping for the next few weeks as I'm going on holiday, but I'm sure Sean and Ken will keep the blog up-to-date... they're doing a brilliant job, cheers guys!

Have a great summer,

Bill

Mullein over one Shell of a moth

Back to old faithful last evening, my garden. Less than perfect conditions produced a surprisingly large number of moths, that included two new for the garden. Amongst 66 moths of 25 species was a Mullein Wave, and a gorgeous Scallop Shell, which is a first for me. I tried to get a more natural shot of the latter, but it got away! That brings my macro garden year list to 144.
.
5th July:
15 Dark Arches
10 Heart and Dart
5 Mottled Beauty
4 Double Square-spot
4 Buff Arches
3 Riband Wave
2 Beautiful Hook-tip
2 Flame
2 Uncertain
2 Heart and Club
2 Common Lutestring
1 Small Dusty Wave
1 Clouded Silver
1 Barred Red
1 Minor sp.
1 Broken-barred Carpet
1 Light Arches
1 Scallop Shell NFG
1 Elephant Hawk-moth (an also-ran now!)
1 Green Pug
1 Minor Shoulder-knot
1 Buff Ermine
1 Fan-foot
1 Dunbar
1 Mullein Wave NFG


A squadron of Dark Arches

Small Dusty Wave

Minor Shoulder-knot

Buff Arches

Beautiful Hook-tip

Mullein Wave


Scallop Shell

The Cold Shoulder Over, as my Ground Takes the Silver

Thankfully, last night had decent cloud cover, which has been lacking recently, so I haven't trapped in the garden for a week. I managed a great rounded total of 50 moths of 25 species. Having not trapped for so long, I of course expected some new for year, but I also got three new for the garden in the shape of two Silver-ground Carpet, a Pale-shouldered Brocade, and a Dusky Brocade, the latter two being brand new to me. Also of note was a stunning Purple Clay, and a much more pristine Marbled White Spot.

17th June:

20 Heart and Dart

3 Dark Arches NFY

2 Peppered Moth

2 Common Pug

2 Silver-ground Carpet NFG

2 Treble Lines

2 Minor sp.

1 Large Yellow Underwing NFY

1 Rustic

1 Middle-barred Minor

1 Grey Pug

1 Foxglove Pug

1 Setaceous Hebrew Character

1 Clouded-bordered Brindle

1 Common Marbled Carpet

1 Marbled White Spot

1 Bird's Wing

1 Poplar Hawk-moth

1 Ingrailed Clay

1 Flame Carpet

1 Willow Beauty NFY

1 Pale-shouldered Brocade NFG

1 Dusky Brocade NFG

1 Purple Clay NFY

Marbled White Spot

Ingrailed Clay

Dark Arches

Purple Clay

Dusky Brocade

Silver-ground Carpet No.1

Silver-ground Carpet No.2

Pale-shouldered Brocade