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!

Nice to get some moths!

I trapped a couple of nights ago, and got nothing. Last night was not as warm, but I decided to trap anyway. Amazingly, I got 10 moths (+ a few micros)! Presumably, this is because it took a few nights of warmer temps to persuade moths to hatch out, or leave thier hibernation places. Nothing new for the garden, but some nice species.

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24th Feb:

3 Chestnut

2 Spring Usher

2 Common Quaker

1 Dotted Border

1 Satellite

1 March Moth

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Sorry about the ugly black rectangles, but I am using my new laptop, and I haven't got quite used to the photo editing software yet!

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Spring Usher

Satellite

March Moth

Dotted Border

Common Quaker

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!

The moths come out to play at last....

...defintiely a milder night last night and I was hopeful of one or two moths in the trap this morning so I was delighted to find nine of the little beggars!

4 Pale Brindled Beauty
2 March Moth
2 Spring Usher
1 Small Brindled Beauty

Anyone else had any success?

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!

The new girl on the blog...

I was very flattered to have been asked to join the blogging team here at Surrey Moths.  I am very much a newbie to mothing having only been running a trap since last August.  Indeed, prior to last August, I had absolutely no knowledge of moths whatsoever and certainly no idea moths could be quite so fascinating!  

So here we are in 2012 and already the mothing world is being turned upside down, or slightly sideways at least, by the early emergence of some species.  Even here in deepest Wimbledon, where moths have not been as numerous as they might be, I am getting a few out of season flyers.  The tally so far this year is:-

2 Chestnut
4 Spring Usher
2 Mottled Umber
1 Pale Brindled Beauty

Then the fun ones......

1 Hebrew Character

 1 Red-green Carpet

 

Please excuse the rubbish photograph but this one that I thought was quiet after a night in the fridge flew before I could get a decent shot!  I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photographing moths!

Late news

I've had some records back from 2011 as I saved some specimens for dissection, which Graham has kindly now done. By coincidence, I had two new garden ticks, both on the same day in May.

One, cream wave, was in a bad way when I found it - not worth a photo. The other was a micro which is one of the hard-to-ID Scoparia species, in this case basistragalis.

Spring Ushered?

If only, but it was a great start to my garden trapping year in the garden. This will be the first year I attempt to use the MV trap regularly in the garden, that's until the neighbours complain!

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Never having trapped in the winter before, I was hoping of at least a garden tick of Winter Moth. None of those amazingly, but I did get that garden tick in the form of a Spring Usher, but despite getting an early Common Quaker as well, I wouldn't regard it as a sign of spring just yet!

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9th January:

2 Chestnut

1 Common Quaker

1 Spring Usher NFG

1 Pale Brindled Beauty

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Spring Usher

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Pale Brindled Beauty

late post

I'm afraid I haven't been doing much mothing recently, partly due to strange work schedules but also feeling the effects of last year's health crisis. (It's ironic that I did far more mothing when I was on sick leave than since I went back to work full-time!) But I thought I'd stick a couple of photos on here for the record.

These photos have been taken over recent months... they are all common except for Argyresthia cupressella, which is the only photo ever taken of this species in Surrey (and I apologise that it's not that great - my camera is reaching the top end of its resolution on a moth that is only 6mm long). How do I know that it's the only photo? Because the moth has only been recorded four times in Surrey, and all the records were in my garden! Incidentally, look out for Smaller moths of Surrey - the ultimate guide to Surrey's micros, which should be out in 2012. I've seen some of the photo plates and they look good!

Speckled wood

common blue


six-striped rustic


oak lutestring


feathered gothic


Argyresthia cupressella

Still waiting...

Still waiting for my autumn fix of migrants, but there have been a healthy amount of interesting garden moths to make trapping in recent nights worthwhile. I also passed my 400th species of moth for the garden at the end of September, with an Acleris schalleriana to the porch light.

Hoary Footman seems to be doing very well in the local area, and this is the 4th individual I've caught this year, after no records at all last year. Its worn state can be explained by its very late appearance in the trap, on the 3rd October...

The distinctive pale hindwing...

Deep-brown Dart...

Barred Sallow, a classic autumnal species...

 Black Rustic...



Blair's Shoulder-knot...

Acleris schalleriana...