Beauty is Golden

After two and a half weeks of no trapping in the garden, I was starting to get desperate, so I decided to take a gamble with last night, despite the rainy forecast.  It was wet, very, and that was reflected in the appaling numbers, but luckily, quality was high, with another two garden ticks.  These were a Four-dotted Footman, and a pristine Beautiful Golden Y, along with expected year ticks (plus only my second garden Purple Bar).

17th June:
5 Common Marbled Carpet
2 Heart and Dart
2 Buff Ermine NFY
1 Dark Arches NFY
1 Peppered Moth
1 Minor sp.
1 Four-dotted Footman NFG
1 Vine's Rustic
1 Lesser Swallow Prominent
1 Figure of 80
1 Purple Bar NFY
1 Beautiful Golden Y NFG
1 Garden Carpet
1 Large Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Small Angle Shades NFY

The only identifiable micros were a Small Magpie and a Diamond-back Moth.

Beautiful Golden Y



Four-dotted Footman

Purple Bar

Large Yellow Underwing

Dark Arches

Small Angle Shades

Heart and Dart

Buff Ermines

This and that

Since a malware attack two weeks ago, I've been having all sorts of probs with my computer. I had to reinstall Windows XP. Now my new firewall won't let me view photos on this site. This is a rambling explanation of why I haven't posted recently.
But I've disabled the firewall in order to post a few photos of recent sightings. I have been trying to photo a few micros as this is the last year of fieldwork for the Surrey micro atlas. They are tricky to photograph but some of the larger ones (c 1cm in length) are quite attractive in close-up. Of course, plenty more are just dull brown things which you wouldn't look twice at. So here are a few random photos from late June -- early July.
barred straw

spectacle

Hedya salicella

yellow-tail

scarce footman

Brown house moth (Hofmannophila pseudospretella)

small angle shades

varied coronet

Eucosma cana

Pyhcita roborella

Recurvaria leucatella (a Notable (b) = scarce moth)

Summer is Here

It was mad around the trap this morning. I got out into the garden shortly after 4 a.m. It was still dark enough for a few moths to be flying around, thanks to the cloud cover. But it was 14deg C and many of the moths in the trap were very active. I did my best to check them out but inevitably lots flew away as soon as I lifted the lamp away from the top of the trap. I covered the trap with a towel and headed for our garden shed. At least I have a chance of recatching some of the ones that fly off in there. I didn't try to count the moths as I wanted to concentrate on IDing as many species as possible before I lost them. I reckon there could have been 500 in all but I must have lost about 100. Even so I had 20 new macro species for the year and umpteen micros - many of which I'll have to ask the ever-patient county recorder to look at. But there were certainly quite a few new for the year among them.

I didn't photograph every species - the day is not long enough but here are some (not all are new for the year - and I don't have common footman or bright-line brown-eye here):
varied coronet


Treble Brown Spot


Dingy Shears


Smoky Wainscot (note dark hindwing)


Small Angle Shades


Rosy Footman


Pale Oak Beauty


Minor Shoulder-knot


Double Square-spot


Common Emerald


Burnished Brass


Blue-Bordered Carpet


Blotched Emerald


Barred Yellow


Beautiful Golden-Y


Barred Straw

A Small Jewel arrives...

A good couple of nights, but I am yet to get my two hundredth garden moth. The weather is going to get warmer, so I can expect it soon hopefully.

Both nights were fairly clear, but with quite warm air, and I got 33 moths of 19 species on the 20th, and 54 moths of 23 last night. Best moths were the few new for the year of Mottled Beauty, Turnip, Double Square-spot, and the jewel in the crown, my second ever Small Angle Shades.

.

Aggregate of 20th and 21st June:

27 Heart and Dart

8 Ingrailed Clay

5 Dark Arches

4 Brimstone

4 Treble Lines

3 Common Marbled Carpet

3 Scorched Wing

2 Grey Pug

2 Uncertain

2 Willow Beauty

2 Minor sp.

2 Common Pug

2 Light Emerald

1 May Highflyer

1 Dusky Brocade

1 Orange Footman

1 Green Carpet

1 Mottled Pug

1 Small Phoenix

1 Pebble Prominent

1 Brown Silver-line

1 Silver-ground Carpet

1 Mottled Beauty NFY

1 Brown Rustic

1 Flame Shoulder

1 Peppered Moth

1 Heart and Club

1 Flame Carpet

1 Small Angle Shades NFY

1 Double Square-spot NFY

1 Purple Clay

1 Marbled White Spot

1 Rustic

1 Turnip NFY

A colourful duo - Brimstone and Light Emerald

Double Square-spot

Small Angle Shades