The Confessions of a Beginner

"My mothing area lies south of Chiddingfold and almost in sight of the Sussex border. I started trapping  a couple of years ago because once the butterflies had disappeared I was faced with several months with nothing to see before they returned with the spring.  There is only so much excitement that can be generated by the sight of a solitary Red Admiral on a sunny winter's day.

Exactly a year ago I took 220 Small Quakers (Orthosia crudain) in my Heath trap with a 20w actinic bulb and over 100 in a Robinson. So far this year I've managed to take just 1 in about 10 nights trapping. 

Several of the usual suspects have appeared, the micro moth Tortricodes alternella commonly turns up, always making me think that at least one of the specimens taken should be something else and no matter what I do always too lively to pose for a photograph. Maybe for this photo of a Yellow-Horned (Achlya flavicornis) I should have taken a head-on police mug shot but he showed every indication of also wanting to escape.

I have a soft spot for the Brindled Beauty because it is the first moth that I ever photographed in its natural setting and so much more colourful in daylight  (Lycia hirtaria)

Small Brindled Beauty (Apocheima hispidaria)

But a more frequent visitor to the trap in January was the Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria)

There have been a smattering of rather worn Chestnuts (Conistra vaccinii) the darker forms of which tempt me to identify them as Dark Chestnut (Conistra ligula). Maybe I'll be lucky enough to have one of each one night so that I can see the difference in the wing shape. The March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) has appeared in small numbers on several nights.

With a little luck and if the forecast is to be believed I might get another night suitable for trapping before the end of the month and  now that the Field Guide to the Micro moths of Great Britain and Ireland has been published as well as the Smaller Moths of Surrey, I almost look forward to a micro moth or two"

John R

Many thanks to local trapper, John, for sharing his brilliant early season catches. 

The red twins....

A decent night for weather, and the trap was reasonably busy with 25 moths. I had a couple of Chestnut which gave me the first oppurtunity to use this very good article ( http://213.253.6.41/webzine/article.asp?a=3135 ), unfortunately, despite a promising initial look, they were both normal Chestnut (I've still not seen Dark). Best things in the trap was only my second Red Chestnut, and a year-tick of some Twin-spot Quaker.

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9th March:

12 Small Quaker

5 Common Quaker

3 Twin-spot Quaker NFY

2 Chestnut

1 Small Brindled Beauty

1 Clouded Drab

1 Red Chestnut NFY

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Chestnut

Small Brindled Beauty

Twin-spot Quaker

Red Chestnut

Beauty and the Brindled

I got a fantastic catch last night, in near perfect conditions. I got 20 moths of 9 species, which is about the amount I would have to wait till May to get with my old (Actinic) trap. These included two new for the garden. An Oak Beauty and a Small Brindled Beauty (seemingly scarce round here) were those in question. These are ticks 255 and 256 on my garden macro list.

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28th Feb:

7 Common Quaker

5 Small Quaker

2 Hebrew Character NFY

1 Small Brindled Beauty NFG

1 March Moth

1 Spring Usher

1 Pale Brindled Beauty

1 Oak Beauty NFG

1 Clouded Drab

....and no Chestnuts!

.

I also got this Agonopteryx which I would appreciate an ID for (Heracliana?):

Hebrew Character

Small Brindled Beauty

Oak Beauty

More than I bargained for!

Like others, I've been taking advantage of the very unseasonal weather to pop the moth trap out in the garden. To be honest, I didn't expect to be as successful as I have been, with a total of 15 species recorded (and god knows how many individuals!) over the past 3 days, bringing the 2012 garden moth list to 20... a figure that wasn't reached until 22nd March last year. Perhaps a sign of things to come?
Here's the list so far:

Dark Chestnut
Chestnut
March Moth
Common Quaker
Small Quaker
Clouded Drab
Small Brindled Beauty
Pale Brindled Beauty
Winter Moth
Spring Usher
Tachystola acroxantha
Epiphyas postvittana
Carpatolechia decorella
Ypsolopha ustella
Tortricodes alternella
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
Emmelina monodactyla
Agonopterix heracliana
Mompha subbistrigella
Acleris cristana

Small Quaker, 1 of 3...

Small Quaker w/ big brother, the Common Quaker...

Spring Usher...

March Moth...

Small Brindled Beauty, the most numerous moth in the trap at present...

Pale Brindled Beauty, a belated garden first...

A gang of 'Beauties'...

Clouded Drab...

Dark Chestnut, a first for the garden...

Carpatolechia decorella...

Mompha subbistrigella...

Ysolopha ustella...

Emmelina monodactyla...

Not exactly a moth, but the thin crescent of the moon was looking nice on Friday night...

Happy mothing!

And a few more....

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Having only started mothing last August, I still have the joy and expectation of finding a moth in my trap that I've not come across before, and this morning did not disappoint.

Amongst the Pale Brindled Beauty, Small Brindled Beauty, Spring Usher and Chestnuts I found a beautiful Dotted Chestnut.  A new find does give such a thrill!

Help!

A nice haul of 7 Spring Usher, 2 Pale Brindled Beauty and 1 possible March Moth this morning.  And these two....anyone care to take a punt on an ID?  I think the first may be a Small Brindled Beauty but the second one I have no idea.....the markings just don't look right for Small Brindled Beauty.  Help!

No Sloe but quite a show

I went on my first field trapping session of the year last night, as it had been a hot day. I visited Bookham Common with Paul Wheeler in the hope of Sloe Carpet. There's wonderful habitat there, with massive Blackthorn thickets everywhere, too early for the Nightingales too! Despite this, we had a great night, and in just two hours (it got cold under the clear sky very quickly) we managed 19 macro moths, and a load of micros too. These included species that I had not expected to be out yet, and three new species for me. A Small Brindled Beauty was quite late, we had an Early Tooth-striped, and two Red Chestnuts. We also discovered some Brown Hairstreak eggs that had been marked by someone with some string. Quite a night!

6th April, Bookham Common:

9 Water Carpet

7 Common Quaker

6 Scorched Carpet

3 Clouded Drab

3 Frosted Green

2 Small Quaker

2 Red Chestnut*

2 Shoulder Stripe

2 Brindled Pug

2 Hebrew Character

1 Early Thorn

1 Streamer

1 Satellite

1 Engrailed

1 Small Brindled Beauty*

1 Oak Beauty

1 Early Tooth-striped*

1 Nut-tree Tussock

1 Oak-tree Pug

Water Carpet

Small Brindled Beauty

Shoulder Stripe

Scorched Carpet

Red Chestnut

Oak-tree Pug

Oak Beauty

Early Tooth-striped

Fabulous February

Since my last post, I've caught plenty more early spring gems...
On the 23rd, along with the regular seasoning of Common Quakers, March Moths and Hebrew Characters, I caught a welcome 3 Twin-spotted Quaker. The variation between them was interesting, especially an individual which hosted 7 spots on each wing, and not the usual 2! After looking in the 'Larger Moths of Surrey' atlas, Collins describes specimens with increased spotting as rare in Surrey...

The usual form...

On the 24th, I moved the 15w actinic to the other end of the garden, with a sheet behind it to reflect the light to all areas of the garden.

It paid off and I caught 4 new species for the garden; Small Brindled Beauty, Small Quaker and an individual of each Amblyptilia acanthadactyla and Agonopterix sp.- the latter of which to me looks very promisingly like A. scopariella- Only 6 sites appearing to be shown on the provisional micro distribution maps for Surrey. Photo send to CR for identification.

Small Brindled Beauty...

Small Quaker and Common Quaker (and to think I was previously afraid of how I would seperate the two species should I ever catch them!)...
 

 
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
 

I'll post the outcome of the mystery micro, as well as a mystery Chestnut sp. that I'm also in the process of IDing, and a Clouded Drab that I haven't had to photograph, in due time... moth trapping is a busy process!

More early moths

This mild spell has clearly got the moths out - I've had one or two that I wouldn't normally expect to see in February.


small quaker


small brindled beauty


shoulder stripe



oak beauty


larva of large yellow underwing (Noctua pronuba)

common quaker