An Ear against the wall brings more than a Dingy Turnip!

Sorry for the surreal title, but I'm running out of clever puns (were they ever clever?)! What I'm really trying to do is keep it interesting, but in truth, there is no need to as the moths continue to speak for themselves.

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Last night was brilliant, with 80 moths of 36 species including amongst them four new for the year, one new for the garden, and two brand new species to me. Two Suspected were new for the garden, although both were worn, the photographed individual being the fresher! The two brand new species were a Gothic, and a Dingy Shell, although these also had seen better days. Interestingly, both these species are moths of wet woodland (nearest to me about a half mile away).

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23th July:

16 Dunbar

9 Riband Wave

4 July Highflyer

4 Large Yellow Underwing

4 Common Rustic sp.

3 Scalloped Oak NFY

3 Dark Arches

3 Willow Beauty

3 Rustic

3 Double Square-spot

2 Uncertain

2 Suspected NFG

2 Heart and Dart

2 Slender Brindle NFY

1 Common Wave

1 Common Footman

1 Ruby Tiger

1 Small Rivulet

1 Bird's Wing

1 Poplar Grey

1 Ear Moth NFY

1 Gothic NFG

1 Svensson's Copper Underwing

1 Buff Ermine

1 Single-dotted Wave

1 Small Fan-footed Wave

1 Bright-line Brown-eye

1 Copper Underwing

1 V Pug

1 Flame

1 Common White Wave

1 Marbled Beauty

1 Dusky Sallow NFY

1 Dingy Shell NFG

1 Turnip

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Garden Macro Year List: 170

Garden Macro List: 221

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Below is a Silver Y I caught in the garden a day or so ago. I left it in the pot a little too long, and it laid eggs!

Turnip

Suspected

Slender Brindle

Scalloped Oak

Riband Wave

Gothic

Ear Moth

Dusky Sallow

Bright-line Brown-eye (a fresher individual than last time)

Dingy Shell

20st-21nd July- NE Surrey

Last night (21st) was poor weather wise, with a clear sky, cold temperatures and a bright moon looming over the garden for most of the night. So it didn't come as a surprise that there were few moths in the trap when I turned the light off at 2am.

Luckily though, this Waved Black made up for the poor tally, my first nationally notable moth for the garden...

And this Agriphila tristella made a new addition to the slowly increasing micro list...

The night before was somewhat better, with 34 species, including 7 totally new for the garden, and not 1 but 2 Tree-lichen Beauties! New for the garden were...

Dot Moth

Ruby Tiger

Cloaked Minor

Dusky Sallow

Lesser-spotted Pinion

Bright-line Brown-eye

Swallow-tailed Moth

Dusky Sallow...

Lesser-spotted Pinion...

On the horn(et)s of a dilemma

Sorry about that ;-)
I put the trap on fairly early in the hope of making the most of a short session. Perhaps that's why I had two or three hornets buzzing around. When I went to switch off at 10.30 ish, I had a nerve-wracking moment as I moved the trap back to my shed. As it turned out there was only one hornet inside - and it only became active after I had processed most of the moths.
A few photos:
small scallop

pebble hook-tip

Cork moth (Nemapogon cloacella)

lesser-spotted pinion


lesser yellow underwing

gold triangle (Hypsopygia costalis)

The villain of the piece!

Shears for the great eight

I put a large parasol over the trap last night, because I thought we may get prolonged rain. In the event it was probably just a brief shower or two, which may well have helped keep moth numbers up. One of the better nights in terms of numbers, with 80 moths of 39 species.
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These included a fantastic eight new for the year (including only my second ever Scarce Footman), and one new for the garden in the shape of a worn Dingy Shears. Some nice micros too, including two pretty Honeysuckle feeders (I have a Honeysuckle at the bottom of my small garden), Twenty-plume Moth and Honeysuckle Moth (Ypsolopha dentella).
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20th July:
10 Riband Wave
10 Flame
6 Dunbar
6 Dark Arches
4 Large Yellow Underwing
3 Uncertain
3 Pale Mottled Willow
2 Shuttle-shaped Dart
2 Marbled Beauty NFY
2 Ruby Tiger NFY
2 Heart and Dart
2 Rustic
2 Common White Wave
1 Miller
1 Green Pug
1 Scarce Footman NFY
1 V-pug
1 Svennson's Copper Underwing
1 Light Emerald
1 Dagger sp.
1 Copper Underwing NFY
1 Small Fan-footed Wave NFY
1 Coronet
1 Turnip
1 Poplar Hawk-moth
1 Bright-line Brown-eye NFY
1 Small Rivulet NFY
1 Peppered Moth
1 Buff Arches
1 Dot Moth
1 Barred Red
1 Common Rustic sp.
1 Double Square-spot
1 Fan-foot
1 July Highflyer
1 Engrailed
1 Lesser Yellow Underwing NFY
1 Dingy Shears NFG
1 Buff Ermine
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Macro Garden List: 218
Macro Garden Year List: 162
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Unlike with recent efforts, I am really happy with this set of photos, even if not all are in 'natural' settings.
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Bright-line Brown-eye




Dingy Shears

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Marbled Beauty

Honeysuckle Moth

Ruby Tiger

Scarce Footman

Small Fan-footed Wave

Small Rivulet

Twenty-plume Moth

Tree-lichen Beauty

Did my first trapping session in the garden for a number of weeks now.

The trap was full to the brim by 12.30am, with highlights including Small Emerald, Buff Footman and a probably Dingy Footman.

However, it was a brilliant surprise to go out to check the trap at 1am and find a Tree-Lichen Beauty resting by the bulb!! Not quite the extreme rarity it was 10 years ago, there have been a number of recent records in the south of this scarce immigrant, including 12 records from Surrey to suggest possible breeding... but there can't be more than about 50 odd records from Britain (?).

The fact that it also coincided with the arrival of a Rush Veneer, and Orthopygia glaucinalis (which can be an occasional migrant to the south) makes me think that it could be a migrant as opposed to from a breeding population.

Orthopygia glaucinalis...

still netting

It's surprising how many moths you can find without a trap. I added a new sp. for my garden at dusk in the form of large tabby (Aglossa pinguinalis) which has not been recorded within 20kms of me (in Surrey) before in the recent era. Its larvae apparently thrive on the detritus in sheep sheds and the like so perhaps not too many people look in such places for moths! As we have a sheep farm near us, that is presumably the source of this Pyralid.


I also caught what I thought was a darker than normal ribband wave. To the naked eye the band had merged into the darker area of the trailing edges of the wings.

Marsh Dagger

To make up for not going on very many Bird twitches recently (my other love in life!), I went down to Pagham Harbour this afternoon to catch up with a mega moth.

Only the second record in Britain in 77 years, I just had to take the oppurtunity to see the Marsh Dagger that had been trapped last night. It was in surprisingly good condition, for a moth that has come across the channel!

The Beautiful Rough comes up trumps

Last evening, I went to a place called Fames Rough near Banstead, in the hope of seeing some nice chalk scrub species. David Gardner was determined to look for a group of micros which feed on Thyme. We did not find those, but we had a fantastic night in near-perfect conditions. Three lifers for me, and even a few micro lifers for the expert!

Up to 1:10 we managed the most macros I have ever experienced, with 82 species. The three new ones were a fantastic Beautiful Carpet, a worn Green Arches, and two Small Emerald. Some other notables were Phoenix, Olive, Waved Black, and three Kent Black Arches.

Fames Rough, 19th July:
Dunbar
Small Fan-footed Wave
Clay Triple-lines
Buff Footman
Buff Arches
Ruby Tiger
July Highflyer
Beautiful Carpet*
Marbled White Spot
Silver Y
Scorched Carpet
Clouded Silver
Smoky Wainscot
Rustic
Double-striped Pug
Common White Wave
Light Emerald
Double Square-spot
Green Pug
Dark Arches
Riband Wave
Brimstone
Clay
Lesser Yellow Underwing
Flame
Brown Scallop
V-pug
Mottled Beauty
Brown-line Bright-eye
Coronet
Single-dotted Wave
Phoenix
Large Yellow Underwing
Scarce Footman
Large Emerald
Common Footman
Garden Carpet
Small Purple-barred
Common Rustic
Oak Nycteoline
Waved Black
Flame Shoulder
Iron Prominent
Small Emerald*
Engrailed
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Small Rivulet
Copper Underwing
Snout
Black Arches
Small Angle Shades
Heart and Dart
Kent Black Arches
Orange Footman
Straw Dot
Ear Moth
Fan-foot
Dusky Sallow
Olive
Common Emerald
Elephant Hawk-moth
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Dark Sword-grass
Least Carpet
Miller
Peppered Moth
Spruce Carpet
Herald
Green Arches*
Poplar Hawk-moth
Dark Umber
Common Lutestring
Bright-line Brown-eye
Blood Vein
Grey Dagger
Common Carpet
Beautiful Hook-tip
Willow Beauty
Small Yellow Wave
Uncertain
Scalloped Hook-tip
Swallow-tail moth

Waved Black

Snout

Small Emerald

Catoptria pinella

Orange Footman, Dunbar, and Kent Black Arches

Herald

Dark Sword-grass

Blood Vein

Dusky Sallow

Beautiful Carpet

Argyresthia postscript

I netted the common species Argyresthia goerdatella in the garden yesterday. It's interesting to compare it with Sean's A. brockeella below.

Black Pepper anyone?

Last night was very poor in terms of numbers for the time of year, but I got a long overdue garden tick, and two forms of common species I have never seen before. Amongst 30 moths of 19 species was a July Highflyer, along with a second generation Purple Thorn, and a carbonaria Peppered Moth, which can't be too frequent these days.
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18th July:
5 Dunbar
3 Dark Arches
3 Uncertain
2 Riband Wave
2 Common Rustic sp. NFY
2 Heart and Dart
2 Light Arches
1 Peppered Moth (carbonaria)
1 Coronet
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Coxcomb Prominent
1 Purple Thorn
1 Buff Arches
1 Willow Beauty
1 Double Square-spot
1 Buff Ermine
1 Rustic
1 July Highflyer NFG
1 Snout
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July Highflyer

Purple Thorn

Carbonaria Peppered Moth