Lepidopterist's Bulging Box of Yearly Ubiquity

(if you don't understand the title, look at the initials)  Last night was incredibly muggy, so I expected decent numbers in the garden trap.  Species were slightly down, but individual numbers were the largest of the year, mostly down to Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings!  The only species highlights were the second records of Birch Mocha, Tawny Speckled Pug, and Peach Blossom, and six of the seven species of Footman I've ever had in the garden.  Micro highlights included an Agriphila selasella and a Parornix species, probably anglicella.

13th August:
Macros:
87 LBBYU
18 Dunbar
15 Large Yellow Underwing
9 Riband Wave
9 Small Fan-footed Wave
7 Dark Arches
6 Willow Beauty
6 Common Rustic sp.
5 Common Carpet
5 Shuttle-shaped Dart
4 Buff Footman
3 Swallow Prominent
3 Dagger sp.
3 Common Footman
3 Pebble Hook-tip
3 Red Twin-spot Carpet
3 Uncertain
3 Rosy Footman
2 Peppered Moth
2 Fan-foot
2 Early Thorn
2 Brimstone
2 Lesser Swallow Prominent
2 Silver Y
1 Dingy Footman
1 Small Phoenix
1 Scarce Footman
1 Yellow-barred Brindle
1 Lesser Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Tawny Speckled Pug NFY
1 Purple Thorn
1 Orange Footman
1 Maiden's Blush
1 Straw Dot
1 Copper Underwing
1 Knot Grass NFY
1 Black Arches
1 Sallow Kitten
1 Flame Carpet
1 Peach Blossom
1 True Lover's Knot
1 Snout

Micros:
12 Mother of Pearl
7 Phycita roborella
5 Cydia splendana
4 Agriphila straminella
4 Agriphila geniculea
4 Agriphila tristella
3 Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix
2 Eudonia mercurella
2 Catoptria pinella
2 Bryotropha affinis
1 Crambus pascuella
1 Blastobasis adustella
1 Swammerdamia pyrella
1 Parornix anglicella*
1 Diamond-back Moth
1 Endotrichia flammealis
1 Hypsospygia glaucinalis
1 Acleris forsskaleana
1 Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix
1 Holly Tortrix
1 Brown House-moth
1 Bactra lancealana
1 Carcina quercana
1 Agriphila selasella*



Birch Mocha

Purple Thorn (second generation)



Sallow Kitten

Black Arches

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Knot Grass (or baldy!)

An array of Daggers



Parornix anglicella

Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix

Agriphila selasella

Swarmmadamia pyrella

Pouring and Prominents

What appaling weather we've been having.  I haven't trapped since March!  I thought it was worth trying last night after a reasonably warm day, although I was sure to fit the rain guard!  I got a nice selection including a new species for the garden.  Unsurprisingly, all but one were year ticks.  The new one was a Swallow Prominent.  I'm used to getting Lesser, but it was nice to get both together.  Unbelievably, despite it being quite a diverse (or be it not that numerous) catch, I didn't get a single Noctuid!

8th May:

5 Brindled Pug

3 Lesser Swallow Prominent NFY

1 Swallow Prominent NFG

1 Brimstone NFY

1 Red Twin-spot Carpet NFY

1 Waved Umber NFY

1 Peppered Moth NFY

1 Great Prominent NFY

1 Grey Pine Carpet NFY

1 Purple Thorn NFY

1 Currant Pug NFY

1 Maiden's Blush NFY

1 Brindled Beauty NFY

I also got loads of Twenty-plume Moths and this micro, Plutella porrectella:

Plutella porrectella

Brimstone

Swallow and Lesser Swallow Prominents

Brindled Beauty

Currant Pug

Great Prominent

Maiden's Blush

Purple Thorn

Peppered Moth

Waved Umber

Moths Abound

As with everyone else, I have been getting lots of Small Quaker, interspersed with all the other moths you would expect to be seeing at this time of year:  Common Quaker, Twin-Spotted Quaker, Chestnuts and Dotted Chestnuts, Hebrew Character, Yellow Horned, March Moth etc etc.  

A few highlights were the nights I got five or six Oak Beauty...that's quite an impressive sight!  A few Early Thorn have arrived and also an early Purple Thorn - usually out around April/May.  A Red-Green carpet has also put in an appearance.

Oak Beauty

Early Thorn

Purple Thorn

Day-Flyers

My partner has spent the last few days here on Wimbledon Common looking for the day-flying Orange and Light Orange Underwing.  The former have been quite abundant around Birch, although flying too high too net.  But a lot of hours spent lurking around a small stand of Aspen finally paid off and he was, through binoculars, able to identify a male Light Orange Underwing by its characteristic comb-toothed antennae when it landed low down in the tree....although unfortunately not low enough to net.  This was reported to our County Recorder, Graham Collins, and he has today confirmed that he will accept this record by virtue of the characteristic antennae.   This is believed to be a first for Wimbledon Common.

April show-ers

This warm weather is encouraging more moths to emerge. There were large swarms of long-horn moths on our local oak trees. They were too high to photograph but could well have been Nematapogon swammerdamella. Below is a selection that came to my trap last night:

purple thorn

nut-tree tussock

iron prominent

flame shoulder

common quaker (a worn specimen which at first glance looked rather like a powdered quaker)

brimstone

And a waved umber from a couple of nights ago...

Black Pepper anyone?

Last night was very poor in terms of numbers for the time of year, but I got a long overdue garden tick, and two forms of common species I have never seen before. Amongst 30 moths of 19 species was a July Highflyer, along with a second generation Purple Thorn, and a carbonaria Peppered Moth, which can't be too frequent these days.
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18th July:
5 Dunbar
3 Dark Arches
3 Uncertain
2 Riband Wave
2 Common Rustic sp. NFY
2 Heart and Dart
2 Light Arches
1 Peppered Moth (carbonaria)
1 Coronet
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Coxcomb Prominent
1 Purple Thorn
1 Buff Arches
1 Willow Beauty
1 Double Square-spot
1 Buff Ermine
1 Rustic
1 July Highflyer NFG
1 Snout
.
July Highflyer

Purple Thorn

Carbonaria Peppered Moth