End of year

It has been a good year for me with 48 new species of moths found in my garden. The final year total looks as if it will be around 360 species.

I've posted quite a few photos but the following montage shows some of my favourites from the year. The splendid brocade (now accepted!) was the rarest but unfortunately the photos leaves something to be desired. One or two of the rarer micros were confirmed by dissection but not photographed.

I overlooked a probable small clouded brindle but the vast majority of my IDs were confirmed by Graham Collins, our county recorder.

Wishing everyone a happy, mothy new year,

Ken

small clouded brindle (probable)

Some of my 2010 highlights

Moths are Scarce!

Unsurprisingly, I have not trapped in the garden yet in November, but I have come across a few moths recently. As I do my postal deliveries around the place, I often come across moths sitting near windows and outside lights. In fact, I have encountered at least 4 new species this way. This total was added to this week as I found many Scarce Umber, including the individual below which I found on one of my own windows, and today I found a fantastic Sprawler. I have also seen one or two Mottled Umber, Epirrita sps, and an unfortunately dead December Moth in a spiders web.
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Scarce Umber

Not quite 200

October, for me, has been a pretty rubbish month for moths, and I managed to add just 2 new garden species to my list in God knows how many trapping sessions!

The first being Merveille Du Jour, and the second being caught on 28th, a nice Rusty Dot Pearl, a migrant micro moth from the continent...

As we come ever closer to the end of 2010, I've managed 191 moths on the year list. I've been trying all month for late autumnal species, but I just don't think my garden is the right place, and I can't quite see myself reaching 200... maybe next year?!

Mild nights at last!

At last the conditions for trapping have improved a bit... and I have caught a few late autumn species over the last couple of nights. There was a pristine Merveille du jour (already well photographed by others on this blog) plus a few others:

red-green carpet


figure of eight

deep-brown dart

brick

yellow-line quaker

chestnut

An Umber of Autumn Moths

In what will probably be my last garden trapping this year, wet and cloudy conditions produced a better-than-expected ten moths last night. Amongst these were a new one for the garden and another couple new for the year. The garden tick was a couple of nice Mottled Umber.

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26th October:

3 Red-line Quaker

2 Mottled Umber NFG

1 November Moth sp. NFY

1 Yellow-line Quaker

1 Feathered Thorn NFY

1 Blair's Shoulder-knot

1 late Common Marbled Carpet

and the remarkable micro, Acleris cristana

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Garden Macro Year List: 215, Garden Macro Life List: 233
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Acleris cristana

Blair's Shoulder-knot

November Moth (Epirrita) sp.

Feathered Thorn
Two different forms of Mottled Umber

Merveille Du Jour

Like Sean, I also caught my first Merveille Du Jour earlier this October on 13th. The beautiful green colours on a fresh adult literally light up any boring, cold October catch, and for a beginner like me, I couldn't believe my eyes when I first peered into the trap and saw it...

A real stunner! I've got the trap out tonight, and am just waiting for a Plumed Prominent to fly in... any minute now! ;-)

The Wonder of the Night

Even though it was cloudy for most of the night, it was fairly chilly, so I was not expecting a great deal in trap. Thanks to one or two heavy showers, it was not looking promising as the egg boxes were soaking! Luckily I did get something, and of the 9 moths, one was a brand new species, and a couple were new for the year. I've been waiting for a long time, but the moment finally came when I looked at the outside of the trap to see a Merveille Du Jour sitting there! Yipee! Even more intircately stunning in the flesh.

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18th October:

2 Brick NFY

2 Chestnut

2 Red-line Quaker

1 Red-green Carpet NFY

1 Yellow-line Quaker

1 Merveille Du Jour NFG (roughly translates as 'wonder of the day' I think)

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Brick

Merveille Du Jour

The head view

Thursley comes up trumps

Myself and David Gardner trapped at Thursley Common last night. One reason was because the last time we tried the site on 16th June, the weather was very cold. In fact, we almost got more moths tonight! The weather was good, with some cloud cover, and the final totals were encouraging. The main reason for the session however was to look for the rare Southern Chestnut, which is a RDB species, and occurs just over the border in Sussex. Unsurprisingly, we did not find that, but we still had a good evening. We managed one lifer for me in the shape of a couple of gorgeous Dotted Chestnut.

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9th October, Thursley Common:

13 Chestnut

12 Yellow-line Quaker

3 Sallow

3 Pink-barred Sallow

3 Barred Sallow

2 Red-line Quaker

2 Dotted Chestnut*

1 Satellite

1 Brick

1 Black Rustic

1 Pine Carpet

1 Feathered Thorn

1 Dusky Thorn

1 Lesser Yellow Underwing
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Satellite

Dotted Chestnut

A Mega Autumn Haul!

I hope my esteemed colleauges are taking advantage of the current weather, cause I don't think it could be better for mothing in October! I will have to take back what I said yesterday about it not getting any better, because it has! Depsite the night starting off clear, the cloud rolled in, and I got an incredibly large haul of 33 moths of 20 species! These included a brand new species, as well as a couple of other year ticks, and several species that are very late(maybe something to do with the poor September weather?).

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8th October:

5 Common Marbled Carpet (including one very fresh individual)

4 Black Rustic

3 Large Yellow Underwing

2 Yellow-line Quaker

2 Brindled Green NFY

2 Chestnut

1 Green Carpet

1 Grey Pine Carpet

1 Silver Y

1 Red-line Quaker

1 Barred Sallow

1 Sallow NFY

1 Lesser Yellow Underwing

1 Light Emerald

1 Grey Shoulder-knot

1 Willow Beauty

1 Large Ranunculus

1 Spruce Carpet

1 Blair's Shoulder-knot NFG

Brindled Green (grey form)

Sallow

Blair's Shoulder-knot
A dark Chestnut
The same with a normal Chestnut

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Autumn moths at thier height

The weather seemed pretty perfect last night, and I managed a good catch, in fact probably the best I can possibly get at this time of year with my equipment. Amongst a haul of 18 moths of 11 species were a few new for the year.
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7th October:
5 Large Yellow Underwing
2 Large Ranunculus NFY
2 Black Rustic NFY
2 Red-line Quaker NFY
1 Yellow-line Quaker NFY
1 Pine Carpet
1 Dark Sword-grass NFY
1 Barred Sallow
1 Common Marbled Carpet
1 Turnip
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
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Large Ranunculus

Dark Sword-grass

Black RusticYellow-line and Red-line Quakers