The Clay on Chalk

The mothing is just relentless at the moment, and I don't really care that the tiredness is catching up with me!  Its worth it.  Last night the destination was the fantastic chalk site of Norbury Park for an event with David Gardner.  The warmest day of the year proceeded it, so we knew we'd get good numbers in our two traps, but quality was yet again better than expected.  One of the first moths to appear was a lifer, a lovely fresh Square-spotted Clay.  The quality macros didn't end there, with things like Mocha, and only my second Cypress Pug.  The quality amongst the micros was never-ending, with things like the stunning Parectopa ononidis, Eucalybites auroguttella, Batrachedra praeangusta, the tiny Hemp-agrimony Plume (aptly named microdactyla), and best of all, the migrant Cydia amplana.

18th August, Norbury Park:
Macros:
8 Dingy Footman
6 Orange Swift
5 Brimstone
10 Pretty Chalk Carpet
8 Green Carpet
3 Lesser-spotted Pinion
1 Square-spotted Clay
15 Barred Hook-tip
3 LBBYU
1 Nut-tree Tussock
12 Large Yellow Underwing
1 Small Rivulet
4 Flame Shoulder
4 Flounced Rustic
4 Iron Prominent
50 Buff Footman
3 Small Fan-footed Wave
4 Ruby Tiger
5 Copper Underwing
5 Common Carpet
6 Coronet
5 Dunbar
1 Snout
5 Straw Dot
2 Lesser Swallow Prominent
2 Riband Wave
2 Orange Footman
2 Yellow-barred Brindle
5 Black Arches
1 Small Phoenix
3 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
5 Square-spot Rustic
2 Rosy Footman
1 Mocha
3 Willow Beauty
1 Common Wave
1 Silver Y
1 Small Waved Umber
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Setaceous Hebrew Character
1 Satin Beauty
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
2 Peach Blossom
3 Dark Arches
1 Cypress Pug
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Pebble Hook-tip
5 Straw Underwing
4 Cloaked Minor
1 Small Square-spot
2 White Point
1 Lime-speck Pug
1 Red Twin-spot Carpet
1 Ear Moth
1 Dagger sp.

Micros (* = lifer):
15 Agriphila tristella
1 Red-barred Tortrix
25 Blastobasis adustella
1 Brown House-moth
3 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
4 Mother of Pearl
1 Bramle Shoot Moth
3 Eudonia mercurella
1 Small China-mark
2 Trachycera advenella
2 Pyrausta aurata
4 Phycita roborella
1 Parectopa ononidis*
3 Cydia splendana
1 Aryresthia goedartella
3 Euzophera pinguis
2 Epinotia nisella
5 Carcina quercana
1 Eucalybites auroguttella*
1 Bactra lancealana
2 Monopsis weaverella
2 Holly Tortrix
2 Gold Triangle
1 Hemp-agrimony Plume*
2 Ash Bud Moth
4 Agapeta hamana
2 Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix
5 Agriphila straminella
2 Diamond-back Moth
1 Caloptilia alchimiella
1 Caloptilia rufipennella*
2 Batia unitella
1 Skin Moth
1 Light Brown Apple Moth
2 Scrobipalpa costella
2 Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner
1 Rush Veneer
1 Phlyctaenia coronata
1 Cydia amplana*
1 Cryptoblades bistriga*
1 Batrachedra praeangusta*
3 Celypha lacunana
1 Endothenia marginana
2 Cochylis atricapitana
1 Caloptilia semifascia*

Total: 100

Square-spotted Clay

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Cypress Pug

Mocha

Hemp-agrimony Plume

Cydia amplana

Three Leopards stalk us at Smithwood

A half-night at a place called Smithwood Common near Cranleigh yesterday produced the now regulation three lifers for me. We placed one trap in grassland, and the other most importantly, next to a pond, which is the last site where Water Ermine had been seen in Surrey.
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No sign of those unsurprisingly, but we did manage 42 macro species up to o:oo in very good conditions. The three new ones were a Double Kidney, three stunning Leopard Moth, and a Lesser-spotted Pinion, which, thanks to recent discussion, I ID'd immediately.
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Smithwood Common, 24th July:
Large Yellow Underwing
Lime-speck Pug
Small Fan-footed Wave
Dunbar
Smoky Wainscot
Common Rustic
Lesser Cream Wave
Small Rufous
Brimstone
Leopard Moth*
July Highflyer
Lesser-spotted Pinion*
Yellow Shell
Double Kidney*
Yellow-tail
Dusky Sallow
Small Rivulet
Dingy Footman
Single-dotted Wave
Common Footman
Ruby Tiger
Snout
Black Arches
Flame Shoulder
Cloaked Minor
Double Square-spot
Small Phoenix
Oak Hook-tip
Uncertain
Buff Arches
a possible Yarrow Pug (it will be gen. deted.)
Willow Beauty
Scarce Footman
Dark Arches
Coxcomb Prominent
Pale Prominent
Riband Wave
Flame
Common Carpet
Currant Pug
Shaded Broad-bar
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
.
Small Rufous

Double Kidney

Cloaked Minor f. latistriata

Lime-speck Pug

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Lesser Cream Wave

Leopard Moth

20st-21nd July- NE Surrey

Last night (21st) was poor weather wise, with a clear sky, cold temperatures and a bright moon looming over the garden for most of the night. So it didn't come as a surprise that there were few moths in the trap when I turned the light off at 2am.

Luckily though, this Waved Black made up for the poor tally, my first nationally notable moth for the garden...

And this Agriphila tristella made a new addition to the slowly increasing micro list...

The night before was somewhat better, with 34 species, including 7 totally new for the garden, and not 1 but 2 Tree-lichen Beauties! New for the garden were...

Dot Moth

Ruby Tiger

Cloaked Minor

Dusky Sallow

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Bright-line Brown-eye

Swallow-tailed Moth

Dusky Sallow...

Lesser-spotted Pinion...

On the horn(et)s of a dilemma

Sorry about that ;-)
I put the trap on fairly early in the hope of making the most of a short session. Perhaps that's why I had two or three hornets buzzing around. When I went to switch off at 10.30 ish, I had a nerve-wracking moment as I moved the trap back to my shed. As it turned out there was only one hornet inside - and it only became active after I had processed most of the moths.
A few photos:
small scallop

pebble hook-tip

Cork moth (Nemapogon cloacella)

lesser-spotted pinion


lesser yellow underwing

gold triangle (Hypsopygia costalis)

The villain of the piece!

Hectic week

I had a very busy trapping session overnight on Tuesday (13th) with c70 species in the trap, including three completely new to me: scallop shell, lesser-spotted pinion and dot moth. I also had about 20 year ticks. It took me ages to ID and, where appropriate, photograph everything.
This evening I netted another new moth in the garden, large emerald.
I am also uploading a picture of one of the egg trays to give an idea of what they looked like - this was taken about three hours after dawn when quite a few moths had already flown away.

large emerald

egg box

dot moth

scallop shell

lesser-spotted pinion


And a couple of year ticks....
bordered beauty

Momphus locupletella (to be confirmed) - Surrey notable

Recurvaria leucatella (Notable (b))