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

Lobes of moths at the marshland

The destination for mothing last night was the water meadows of Godalming - the Lammas Lands. Yet again, conditions were warm, but not at all cloudy, and we got good numbers, which included the hoped for wetland species. In fact in amongst the 53 macro species, all four lifers were moths of wet habitats. The new ones were Dingy Shears, Double Lobed, Lesser Cream Wave, and Large Twin-spot Carpet. Also yet another Kent Black Arches, but this time much more surprising (habitat wrong!).

10th July, Lammas Lands:
Snout
Smoky Wainscot
Straw Dot
Ghost Swift
Light Arches
Common Emerald
Dingy Footman
Flame Shoulder
Riband Wave
Beautiful Hook-tip
Single-dotted Wave
Swallow-tailed Moth
Dingy Shears*
Rosy Footman
Double Lobed*
Round-winged Muslin
Buff Arches
Buff Ermine
Dunbar
Poplar Grey
Mottled Beauty
Black Arches
Flame
September Thorn
Dot Moth
Clouded Border
Peppered Moth
Common Footman
Dark Arches
Small Fan-footed Wave
Drinker
Dusky Borcade
Uncertain
V-Pug
Middle-barred Minor
Coronet
Mottled Rustic
Willow Beauty
Common Lutestring
Scarce Footman
Large Emerald
Large Twin-spot Carpet*
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Kent Black Arches
Miller
Burnished Brass
Heart and Dart
Peach Blossom
Small Rivulet
Pine Carpet
Light Emerald
Bright-line Brown-eye
Lesser Cream Wave*
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Large Emerald


Round-winged Muslin

A very scruffy Drinker

Dingy Shears

Double Lobed

Summer is Here

It was mad around the trap this morning. I got out into the garden shortly after 4 a.m. It was still dark enough for a few moths to be flying around, thanks to the cloud cover. But it was 14deg C and many of the moths in the trap were very active. I did my best to check them out but inevitably lots flew away as soon as I lifted the lamp away from the top of the trap. I covered the trap with a towel and headed for our garden shed. At least I have a chance of recatching some of the ones that fly off in there. I didn't try to count the moths as I wanted to concentrate on IDing as many species as possible before I lost them. I reckon there could have been 500 in all but I must have lost about 100. Even so I had 20 new macro species for the year and umpteen micros - many of which I'll have to ask the ever-patient county recorder to look at. But there were certainly quite a few new for the year among them.

I didn't photograph every species - the day is not long enough but here are some (not all are new for the year - and I don't have common footman or bright-line brown-eye here):
varied coronet


Treble Brown Spot


Dingy Shears


Smoky Wainscot (note dark hindwing)


Small Angle Shades


Rosy Footman


Pale Oak Beauty


Minor Shoulder-knot


Double Square-spot


Common Emerald


Burnished Brass


Blue-Bordered Carpet


Blotched Emerald


Barred Yellow


Beautiful Golden-Y


Barred Straw