A Broader String to my Bow

The forecast of a nice cloudy night had me scrambling for the trap equipment yesterday evening.  It had probably been just a little too cool during the day for a 'big night', but my garden continued its incredible record of ticks from recent trappings.  Amongst 52 moths of 25 species was another new one to me, and another garden tick, as well as the usual list of year ticks.  The brand new one was a single Broad-barred White, a moth apparently of shingle beaches and waste ground in urban areas.  The garden tick was a Poplar Lutestring, but interestingly, I also got another Figure of 80 (I hate it when that happens, as it just devalues the first record!).  I also saw my first ever intermediate Peppered Moth between the normal and carbonaria forms.

31st May:
11 Common Marbled Carpet
5 Shuttle-shaped Dart
4 Peppered Moth
3 Flame Shoulder
3 Heart and Dart
3 Orange Footman
2 Light Brocade
2 Green Carpet
2 Vine's Rustic
2 Brimstone
1 Pale Tussock
1 Yellow-barred Brindle
1 Silver Y
1 Common Carpet
1 Clouded Silver NFY
1 Common White Wave NFY
1 Figure of 80
1 Small Phoenix NFY
1 Treble Lines
1 Common Pug
1 Spectacle NFY
1 Broad-barred White NFM
1 Garden Carpet
1 Poplar Lutestring NFG
1 Broken-barred Carpet NFY

Broad-barred White

Peppered Moth (intermediate)

Clouded Silver

Small Phoenix

Broken-barred Carpet

Poplar Lutestring

Spectacle

I have been seeing lots of these larval cases of Psyche casta about the place, but imagine my surprise when I found this one inside the lounge!:

Psyche casta

 

Chocolate surprise

Last night I went on the first field trapping session of the year, which was at Hagthorne on the edge of the Ash Ranges. The temperature was ideal (so the mossies were out in force!), so we knew we were in for a busy night, and at close of play at around 1, we had had 49 macro species in four traps - not bad considering we are still in May. No lifers amongst these, but I did see the adults of Fox Moth and Pine Beauty for the first time, having only seen thier caterpillars before. We also got some notable scarcities, including a Small Chocolate-tip. Bizzarely, I have now seen two of these, but not yet encountered normal Chocolate-tip (except in a pot on a table at Dungeness visitor centre, which doesn't really count)!

24th May - Hagthorne, Ash Ranges:

21 Green Carpet

5 Sharp-angled Carpet

6 Brown Silver-line

2 Common White Wave

2 Poplar Lutestring

2 Oak Hook-tip

2 Sharp-angled Peacock

2 Mottled Pug

4 Brimstone

1 Narrow-winged Pug

9 Small Seraphim

3 Flame Shoulder

5 Fox Moth

2 Iron Prominent

2 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Ruby Tiger

3 Grey Birch (my 2nd, having seen my first just a few hours earlier, in my garden trap)

5 Pale Tussock

1 Small Chocolate-tip

1 Silver-ground Carpet

1 Least Black Arches

1 Common Swift

1 Spectacle sp. (see photos)

3 Pebble Hook-tip

1 Pine Hawk-moth

2 May Highflyer

3 Scalloped Hook-tip

2 Small Yellow Wave

1 Peacock

1 Tawny-barred Angle

1 Treble Lines

1 Pale Prominent

1 Lesser Swallow Prominent

1 Red-green Carpet

1 Common Carpet

1 Silver Y

2 Dingy Shell

1 Poplar Grey

1 Pine Beauty

1 Marbled Brown

1 White Ermine

2 Horse Chestnut

2 Peppered Moth

1 Common Lutestring

2 Great Prominent

3 Cinnabar

1 Pebble Prominent

1 Orange Footman

1 True Lover's Knot

Poplar Lutestring

Fox Moth

Small Chocolate-tip

Grey Birch

Pale Tussock

Least Black Arches

We debated whether this was a Dark Spectacle for ages, but we are still undecided.  Any opinions? (sorry for the unhelpful shot - the ground colour was sandy brown)

Sharp-angled Peacock

Small Yellow Wave

Dingy Shell

Pine Beauty

A litter of Kittens and more at Wisley Heath

Last nights event was at the heath of Wisley. We went there last year, but the weather was freezing and we got 35 species (micros and macros). Luckily, this time we were blessed with much better conditions, and we got more than double that. No lifers, but lots of top quality moths, including several Heath Rustics. In my trap I got five species of Prominent, including my first Swallow in Surrey (I've only ever seen Lesser), and in David's trap were five Kittens, which were split 3 - 2 Poplar to Sallow. The micro highlight came in the extraordinary shape of a very fresh Acleris emergana.

5th August, Wisley:

Yellow Shell

Double-striped Pug

Large Yellow Underwing

Dingy Footman

Ling Pug

Ruby Tiger

True Lover's Knot

Scarce Footman

Birch Mocha

Single-dotted Wave

Heath Rustic

Black Arches

Uncertain

Knot Grass

Flame Shoulder

Rosy Footman

Turnip

Sallow Kitten

Iron Prominent

Common Carpet

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Small Fan-footed Wave

Pebble Hook-tip

Poplar Lutestring

Smoky Wainscot

Sharp-angled Carpet

Poplar Kitten

Tawny-barred Angle

LBBYU

Narrow-winged Pug

Common Wainscot

Straw Dot

Dunbar

Brimstone

Cloaked Minor

Peacock

Small Rufous

Coxcomb Prominent

Pale Prominent

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Scalloped Oak

Clay

Common Wave

Large Emerald

Svensson's Copper Underwing

Swallow Prominent

White Point

Heath Rustic no.1

Heath Rustic no.2

Kittens (When I took this, I thought I had a Sallow on my finger, and a Poplar on the card, but now I'm not too sure!)

Swallow Prominent

Poplar Lutestring

Acleris emergana

Far from a Grey night at Dawneys

On the 9th, the weather was perfect, so we did an impromptu trapping session at Dawney Hill, near Woking, hoping for pioneer species at this site with young heathland. We couldn't possibly predict the quality that was about to occur. The first of four new species was a Narrow-winged Pug, a fairly common species. But after a brief sighting of a Beautiful Yellow Underwing, a Bordered Grey arrived, a notable A species. After that fantastic find, we looked at the same egg box later, and found an Archer's Dart in it, a species which could definitely be described as a pioneer species. Finally, we found a late Poplar Lutestring, to complete the quality lineup. We also got a large number of Wax Moths, presumably there was some hives nearby.

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Dawney's Hill, 9th August:

Small Fan-footed Wave

Yellow Shell

Cloaked Minor

Flame Shoulder

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Narrow-winged Pug*

True Lovers Knot

Beautiful Yellow Underwing*

Riband Wave

Large Yellow Underwing

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Dark Arches

LBBYU

Common Rustic

Pale Prominent

Vine's Rustic

Dunbar

Common Lutestring

Iron Prominent

Pine Hawk-moth

Common Carpet

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Black Arches

Least Yellow Underwing

Small Rivulet

Copper Underwing

Yellow-barred Brindle

Horse Chestnut

Currant Pug

Archer's Dart

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Straw Dot

Maiden's Blush

Elephant Hawk-moth

Pebble Hook-tip

Scalloped Hook-tip

Double-striped Pug

Birch Mocha

Six-striped Rustic

Brimstone

Tawny-barred Angle

Poplar Lutestring*

Oak Hook-tip

Ruby Tiger

Early Thorn

Bordered Grey*

Rosy Footman

Willow Beauty

Peacock

Smoky Wainscot

Scarce Footman

Large Emerald

Lime-speck Pug

Scalloped Oak

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Archer's Dart

Narrow-winged Pug
Wax Moth
Poplar Lutestring
Bordered Grey