The Pros and Quins of Tilburstow / Stoke's Webb's

On the 6th August, the mothing event was at Tilburstow Hill near Godstone, but it was cold, and it passed largely uneventfully. Best was the pretty micro Mompha propinquella.

6th August, Tilburstow Hill:

Riband Wave

Small Fan-footed Wave

Uncertain

Dunbar

Small Rivulet

Yellow-tail

LBBYU

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Pale Prominent

Maiden's Blush

Buff Footman

Rosy Footman

Mottled Beauty

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Common Footman

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Early Thorn

Clay

Svensson's Copper Underwing

Small Phoenix

Coxcomb Prominent

Common Rustic

Peacock

Nut-tree Tussock

Pebble Hook-tip

Willow Beauty

Black Arches

Copper Underwing

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Iron Prominent

Least Yellow Underwing

Mompha propinquella

Last night, there was a night-life event at Stoke Meadows in Guildford. Conditions were pretty good, so its a surprise we got so few moths in two traps, but at least we got the nice wetland specialists of a couple of Webb's Wainscot and about six Crescent. Sorry about the awful shots, but I was rushed trying to deal with the public at the same time!

11th August, Stoke Meadows:

Webb's Wainscot

Yellow Shell

Small Dotted Buff

Pale Mottled Willow

Old Lady

Common Rustic

Green Carpet

Brimstone

Copper Underwing

Straw Dot

Flame Shoulder

LBBYU

Svensson's Copper Underwing

Small Seraphim

Common Carpet

Smoky Wainscot

Tawny Speckled Pug

Crescent

Small Rufous

Dunbar

Turnip

Old Lady - found roosting in a concrete outflow pipe

Webb's Wainscot

Crescent

A litter of Kittens and more at Wisley Heath

Last nights event was at the heath of Wisley. We went there last year, but the weather was freezing and we got 35 species (micros and macros). Luckily, this time we were blessed with much better conditions, and we got more than double that. No lifers, but lots of top quality moths, including several Heath Rustics. In my trap I got five species of Prominent, including my first Swallow in Surrey (I've only ever seen Lesser), and in David's trap were five Kittens, which were split 3 - 2 Poplar to Sallow. The micro highlight came in the extraordinary shape of a very fresh Acleris emergana.

5th August, Wisley:

Yellow Shell

Double-striped Pug

Large Yellow Underwing

Dingy Footman

Ling Pug

Ruby Tiger

True Lover's Knot

Scarce Footman

Birch Mocha

Single-dotted Wave

Heath Rustic

Black Arches

Uncertain

Knot Grass

Flame Shoulder

Rosy Footman

Turnip

Sallow Kitten

Iron Prominent

Common Carpet

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Small Fan-footed Wave

Pebble Hook-tip

Poplar Lutestring

Smoky Wainscot

Sharp-angled Carpet

Poplar Kitten

Tawny-barred Angle

LBBYU

Narrow-winged Pug

Common Wainscot

Straw Dot

Dunbar

Brimstone

Cloaked Minor

Peacock

Small Rufous

Coxcomb Prominent

Pale Prominent

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Scalloped Oak

Clay

Common Wave

Large Emerald

Svensson's Copper Underwing

Swallow Prominent

White Point

Heath Rustic no.1

Heath Rustic no.2

Kittens (When I took this, I thought I had a Sallow on my finger, and a Poplar on the card, but now I'm not too sure!)

Swallow Prominent

Poplar Lutestring

Acleris emergana

Notables from the Garden

A big improvement in night temperatures over the last few days has resulted in some real quality moths turning up in the garden trap.

It took all morning to identify this very worn little moth as the rare immigrant, Oak Processionary.  Males of the species have occasionally made the hop from mainland Europe, and more recently, larvae of the species is appearing in stretches of Oak woodland in the South, much to the disapproval of many wildlife authorities. The larvae, if present in numbers, can seriously damage Oak trees, and also release hairs that are highly irritable to the skin.

Small Ranunculus has been increasing its range in the South-east ever since it was re-discovered in Britain in 1997, so I guess it was only a matter of time before one turned up in the garden, but it was still a great surprise to walk out to check the trap and find one staring back!

Hoary Footman is another scarce species which is slowly spreading up from the coast, where it has until recently been confined to sea cliffs in the South-west. It is now established in various localities in Surrey, and I caught this individual in the garden on 31st July, a day before Jim Porter caught one just up the road in his Chessington garden.

And a comparison with the much commoner Scarce Footman (foreground)...

This well marked Tree-lichen Beauty on the 1st August represented the 3rd individual I've caught in the garden this year, of this recently established immigrant.

Waved Black, caught on 3rd August...

I thought Plain Pug was chiefly coastal, so it was a bit of a surprise when I caught this moth the other night. It turns out that the species is quite common in the suburbs of south London...



Farnham Micros

As promised, here is my first real attempt at entering the world of micro moths! I admit that most were ID'ed for me, but hopefully some will stick in my head now that I took the time to photograph, and look them up. All caught on the 1st at Farnham Heath.

Aristotelia ericinella

Phycitodes binaevella

Spindle Ermine

Crambus perlella

Possible Pseudotelphosa paripunctella

Teleiopsis diffinis

Coleophora sp. (prob lutipennella)

Phyllonorycter sp. (Prob sorbi)

Zeiraphera isertana

Dioryctria simplicella

Variegated Golden Tortrix

Phycita roborella

Batia lunaris

Epagoge grotiana

Rhyacionia pinicolana

Cydia splendana

Synaphe punctalis

Oegoconia sp. (prob quadripuncta)

Still no comment

Blogger still won't let me log in to post a comment!!!

Thanks, Bill.

I think your spot on with the Carpet. I'm amazed! I was a mile and a bit from the Wey I suppose.

Sean

The Dark side

I'm sorry I can't make the 200th blog post more dynamic than trapping in the garden, but its fitting to at least get a garden tick. In decent conditions, numbers were actually a bit down, but luckily quality was good, with several year ticks, a second record, and the new garden species. The new one was the respectable county record of Dark Spectacle (although the reason there are so few records is due to confusion arrising from the changing of nomenclature!). I also got my second record of Suspected, and bizzarely, just like my first record, involves two individuals.

2nd August:
7 Dunbar
7 Shuttle-shaped Dart
6 Large Yellow Underwing
6 Riband Wave
4 Common Rustic
2 Common Carpet
2 Clay
2 Suspected NFY
2 Willow Beauty
1 Rosy Footman
1 Small Phoenix
1 Knot Grass NFY
1 Common Footman NFY
1 Slender Brindle
1 Lesser Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Dark Arches
1 Ear Moth
1 Uncertain
1 Scalloped Oak
1 Small Fan-footed Wave
1 Svensson's Copper Underwing NFY
1 Dark Spectacle NFG

Common Carpet

Suspected

Knot Grass

Dark Spectacle

One-hundered-and-eighty! Game on at Farnham

I went trapping away from the garden by myself for the first time, using my MV. With power courtesy of the Rural Life Centre, I was able to trap last night in a recently felled clearing at Farnham Heath RSPB reserve. Conditions could not have been much better, with cloud rolling in just after dusk. I was kept pretty busy, although the final count of 43 macro species for the whole night is a tad dissapointing, possibly because of the late-ish time of year. Best was a White-line Dart, which pretty much a lifer (I saw one in a pot at Dungeness on a moth morning once). Also nice heathland species of Dotted Border Wave and Beautiful Yellow Underwing. My first adult Oak Eggar in Surrey too. I paid a lot of attention to the micros, to try not to loose any records by photographing them all for ID later. I'll do a separate post for those, once I have the ID's. One that I think I could do however, was Synaphe punctalis, which was very common. A couple of interesting Beetle vistiors too. I also have a Carpet which stumped me.

August 1st, Farnham Heath:

Yellow-tail

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Common Footman

Scarce Footman (loads!)

Oak Nycteoline

Ruby Tiger

Beautiful Hook-tip

Small Fan-footed Wave

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Oak Eggar

Riband Wave

Uncertain

Common Rustic

Beautiful Yellow Underwing

Yellow Shell

Rosy Footman

Lesser Swallow Prominent

True Lover's Knot

Black Arches

Dark Arches

Dingy Footman

Dunbar

Tawny-barred Angle

Pine Hawk

White-line Dart*

Dotted Border Wave

Plain Wave

Grey Pine Carpet
Nut-tree Tussock

Lime-speck Pug

Narrow-winged Pug

Brown-line Bright-eye

Scalloped Hook-tip

Dark Sword-grass

Willow Beauty

Oak Hook-tip

Horse Chestnut

Pebble Hook-tip

Large Yellow Underwing

Buff Footman

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Pine Carpet

September Thorn

At first I thought it was a Common, but the white lines are not clear enough. Any ideas?

Synaphe punctalis

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Dotted Border Wave

Plain Wave

Oak Eggar

Gigantic Pine Longhorn Beetle (it was at least the size of a Stag Beetle)

Eyed Ladybird


White-line Dart

Lets try and make the 200th blog post a good one chaps!