A Peach of a Catch in the Garden

Conditions looked pretty good last night, with entire cloud cover and little rain forecast.  It was slightly wrong in that it rained almost all night!  But, with the rain guard in place, it caused little problems, and in fact I think proved that it is very much worth trapping in these conditions (as long as you can protect your equipment!).  I got the biggest number of individuals, with 105, since Small Quaker-gate, and the second most diverse catch of the year with 40 species (140 of 55 if you include micros).  Amongst these were 13 year ticks, which is unsurprising considering I haven't trapped in the garden for two and a half weeks for various reasons.  I did get one garden tick too in the form of an overdue Peach Blossom.  Also my second Four-dotted Footman. 

13th July:
11 Heart and Dart
11 Large Yellow Underwing
10 Minor sp.
6 Riband Wave NFY
6 Dark Arches
6 Uncertain
4 Flame Shoulder
3 Buff Ermine
3 Light Emerald
3 Flame
3 Double Square-spot NFY
3 Heart and Club
3 Snout
2 Garden Carpet
2 Peppered Moth
2 Spectacle
2 Elephant Hawk-moth
2 Swallow-tailed Moth
2 Clay NFY
2 Light Arches NFY
2 Dot Moth NFY
1 Buff Arches
1 Four-dotted Footman
1 Peach Blossom NFG
1 Green Silver-lines NFY
1 Beautiful Golden Y
1 Rustic NFY
1 Burnished Brass NFY
1 Buff-tip
1 Small Angle Shades
1 Green Pug
1 Poplar Hawk-moth
1 Clouded Border
1 Scorched Wing NFY
1 Common Rustic sp.
1 July Highflyer NFY
1 Turnip NFY
1 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing NFY

Micros (* = lifer):
13 Chrysoteuchia culmella
9 Dipleurina lacustrata
2 Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix
2 Crambus perlella
2 Bramble-shoot Moth
1 White-shouldered House Moth
1 Diamond-back Moth
1 Celypha lacunana
1 Batia lunaris
1 Acleris quercana
1 Crambus pascuella
1 Agriphila straminella
1 Argyresthia brockeella
1 Codling Moth * (incredible considering I have always put the trap under an Apple tree!)
1 Ypsolopha parenthesella *

Peach Blossom

Four-dotted Footman

Clay

Dot Moth

Light Arches

July Highflyer

Scorched Wing

Green Silver-lines

Ypsolopha parenthesella (I think, please correct if wrong)

Darts, Clubs and Silver-lines

Another warm night, so I trapped in the garden. I got the best variety of the year so far, but the high numbers of individuals were mostly down to Heart and Dart! Only the second garden record of Green Silver-lines was probably the best, although its a shame it was so worn.

3rd June:

48 Heart and Dart

15 Dark Arches

6 Minor sp.

4 Treble Lines

4 Flame

2 Willow Beauty NFY

2 Heart and Club NFY

2 Grey Pug

1 Dusky Brocade NFY

1 Brimstone NFY

1 Garden Carpet NFY

1 Middle-barred Minor NFY

1 Green Silver-lines NFY

1 Buff-tip

1 Brown Silver-lines

1 Large Yellow Underwing NFY

1 Vine's Rustic

1 Light Emerald NFY

Heart and Club

Garden Carpet

Dusky Brocade

Middle-barred Minor

Green Silver-lines

An Umber of Great moths

I have not trapped in the garden for some time, mainly due to the appalling clear weather we have had! I needed a mothing fix, so I went to Oaken Wood last night with Derek Coleman. Conditions were again poor, so I was quite surprised at the number of species we got by 23:30. The best from my point of view was the new species of Barred Umber, but we got a number of scarce species too, such as Great Oak Beauty, Four-dotted Footman, and Orange Moths.

21st May, Oaken Wood:

Green Carpet

Little Emerald

Common Swift

Orange Moth

Birch Mocha

Silver-ground Carpet

Purple Bar

Cream Wave

Treble-bar

Pale Tussock

Brown Silver-lines

Treble Lines

Common Marbled Carpet

Maiden's Blush

Four-dotted Footman

Pale Prominent

Scalloped Hazel

Barred Umber*

Green Silver-lines

Small White Wave

Great Oak Beauty

Marbled Brown

Light Emerald

Clouded Silver

Broken-barred Carpet

Blood Vein

Orange Footman

Treble Brown-spot

Buff Ermine

Oak Hook-tip

White Pinion-spotted

Flame Shoulder

Heart and Dart

Ingrailed Clay

Peacock

Common Pug

Alder Moth

Lobster Moth

Scorched Wing

Poplar Grey

White Ermine

Small Seraphim

Small Dotted Buff

Pale Oak Beauty

Foxglove Pug

Vine's Rustic

Total: 46

Cream Wave (none of us were sure, but thats the decision we came to)

Marbled Brown

Alder Moth

Orange Moth

Birch Mocha

Green Silver-lines

Great Oak Beauty

Barred Umber

Sorry for going off topic again, but I just have to share this shot I got of a Cream-spot Tiger in Brittany last week (There were lots of lepidopteran highlights there, but this was the only one I photographed):

Green and Yellow

Another fantastic cloudy night attracted some real lookers to the trap come the morning.
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55 moths of 28 species was an excellent return, and included a first for the garden in the distinctive shape of a Green Silver-lines. I did wonder when I would get this one, after finding a caterpillar not so far away last year. Some year ticks were Lobster Moth and Swallow-tail Moth.
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29th June:
8 Heart and Dart
8 Riband Wave
3 Fan-foot
3 Double Square-spot
3 Flame
2 Lobster Moth NFY
2 Beautiful Hook-tip
2 Buff Arches
2 Coronet
2 Rustic
2 Willow Beauty
2 Uncertain
1 Blotched Emerald
1 Light Emerald
1 Green Pug
1 Marbled White Spot
1 Buff-tip
1 Heart and Club
1 Minor sp.
1 Green Silver-lines NFG
1 Swallow-tailed Moth NFY
1 Dark Arches
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Buff Ermine
1 May Highflyer
1 Bird's Wing
1 Small Angle Shades
1 Large Yellow Underwing

Lobster Moth

Swallow-tailed Moth

Blotched Emerald

Green Silver-lines

Green Silver-lines