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)

A better night

I had quite a good selection on 20th night, though most are ones already featured previously (orange footman, spectacle, pale oak beauty etc). But here are a couple of photos... (Amazingly we don't seem to have common footman before!)

great prominent

scorched wing

small dusty wave

common wainscot

Mega moths!

Wow, what a night, this is what mothing is all about.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning, expecting the trap to be full of water! Amazingly, this area avoided the rain, but got the moths. The final tally of 93 moths of 41 species is massively bigger than anything before, and it took me a couple of hours to sort them out. There were also plenty of Cockchafers and Ichumen wasps in the trap too, and that certainly made the rumage interesting!

The couple of brand new species to me were Broken-barred Carpet and the Seraphim, but there were also loads of new-for-gardens and new-for-years.

5th June:

12 Heart and Dart
9 Common Marbled Carpet
5 Mottled Pug
4 Brown Silver-lines
3 Oak-tree Pug
3 Shuttle-shaped Dart
3 Peppered Moth
3 Flame Shoulder
3 Scorched Wing NFG
3 Green Carpet
3 May Highflyer
3 Common Pug
2 Brimstone
2 Spruce Carpet
2 Minor sp.
2 Heart and Club
2 Buff-tip
2 Pale Prominent
2 Red Twin-spot Carpet
2 Orange Footman
2 Maiden's Blush
2 Light Brocade
2 Flame NFY
2 Treble Lines
1 Small Phoenix
1 probable Grey Pug NFG
1 probable Seraphim NFG
1 Coxcomb Prominent
1 Grey Pine Carpet
1 Small Serphim
1 Alder Moth
1 Coronet NFY
1 V-Pug NFY
1 Spectacle
1 White Ermine
1 Snout NFY
1 Ingrailed Clay
1 Flame Carpet
1 Marbled Brown NFG
1 Broken-barred Carpet NFG
1 Rustic NFY
1 White-spotted Pug

V-Pug

The Flame

Small Seraphim

probable Seraphim

Scorched Wing

Rustic

faded Red Twin-spot Carpet

Minor (probably Marbled)

Marbled Brown (honestly!)

Coronet

Broken-barred Carpet,

Thunder!!

Last night was a bit mad – my biggest catch of the year by a distance. No doubt thanks to the thundery conditions. I woke at 4.20 a.m. and it took me till about 10 a.m. to sort out my catch (with a pause for breakfast!). 48+ species.
I’ve still got a load of micros to sort out but this is my provisional list:

Large yellow underwing
Brown silver-lines x2 nfy
Willow beauty nfy
Straw dot x5 nfy
Orange footman x2
White ermine z9
Pale tussock x5
Green carpet x2
Heart & dart x2
Treble lines x4 nfy
Flame-shoulder x2
Celypha lacunana x6

Poplar hawk
Shoulder-striped wainscot
Agapate hamana x 4 nfy

Middle-barred minor x2 nfy
Flame nfy
Flame carpet x3
Bee moth nfy
May highflyer x3
Common marbled carpet x3
Clouded silver x 5
Buff-tip nfy

Alder kitten nfy

Sharp-angled carpet
Scorched wing x2 nfy

Epiphyas postvittana nfy
Broken-barred carpet 3
Blood-vein
Pale oak beauty x2 nfy

Snout nfy
Common swift x2 nfy


Oligia sp. nfy
Common wave 2
Peppered moth nfy
Green silver-lines nfy
Common rustic agg nfy
Psyche casta nfy

Light emerald x2 nfy
Brimstone x2
Dark sword-grass
Poplar lute-string nfy
Engrailed nfy
Ingrailed clay nfy
Small seraphim New species for me!

Small phoenix nfy
Maiden’s blush nfy.
Ingrailed clay nfy
Freyer’s pug nfy

Small seraphim nfy