Saturday 31 August 2013

A Few Late Summer Moths

A productive night last night yielded 174 moths of 44 species from 4 traps in and around our property.  Here are some of the late summer moths caught.
Carolyn & Evan.

Centre-barred Sallow

Pink-barred Sallow

Dusky Thorn

Small Wainscot

Oblique Carpet

Friday 30 August 2013

Autumn really has arrived!


First Frosted Orange and Autumnal Rustic in the trap last night and a DUSKY Thorn!  I did locate it near to big ash trees as I noticed that Duskies are well recorded in the County so I ought to have some.
The Autumnal was much more coloured than I have caught before and in mint condition.
Apologies for quality of pics, Sarah has set the pace in this department!

Monday 26 August 2013

Nutmeg

Well done Sarah.  Here is the Nutmeg distribution map.  No recent records and it seems that yours is the first in your area. Two flight seasons April-June and August-September.

Evan


mocha, and others


some of the moths that came to light in the ystwyth valley on sunday...
barred chestnut

bordered beauty

mocha

Friday 23 August 2013

Mynachdy'r Graig - Numbers

As promised, the stats for 5 traps on NT property at Monk's Cave 22nd Aug'13.

A total of 209 moths identified, though one or two more either escaped or were beyond guesswork, these were made up of 40 macro species and 5 micros. 

The trap on the top of the ridge may well have produced more micros, but there was just the one intrepid Iron Prominent on the outside hanging on for all it was worth.  As Liz said one of her traps was blown over, so the count could well have been higher.

Most numerous in order;
Flounced Rustic 25
Large Y.U.  &  Antler  21 each
Sallow 19
Flame Shoulder  11
Hedge Rustic 9

Other species of interest;
Orange Swift - Quote from A.P.Fowles "The 2 year development period of the larvae is reflected by the biennial appearance of this moth, very few specimens observed in even numbered years."
Six Oblique Carpet in the lower of the traps near wet pasture.
Two Devon Carpet an Nb species centred on mid Wales.

In the micros we had Cydia ulicetana, not surprisingly as it is a Gorse feeder.

Trapping Event at Longwood Lampeter 7th/8th Sept

I am operating a 160w MV lamp and white sheet at 7.30pm in the carpark at Longwood Community Woodland on 7th Sept and opening traps set around the wood next morning.  
The evening event is on behalf of the Community Woodland committee and is being advertised around Lampeter district so I would be grateful if any fellow trappers could turn up to help out. Part of our brief is to raise awareness and we are anxious to do this in non-trapped parts of the County.

The morning session will start at 09.30am in the carpark.  GR617521.  Get to Llangybbi on the A485 between Tregaron and Lampeter and turn east in the middle of the village opposite the little shop signed LLanfair Clydogau. Follow lane keeping right and near top of hill is RIGHT turn into a small lane where the (large) carpark is on the right.  Its an interesting wood and worth exploring if the weather is kind, a trail leads to a huge hillfort with excellent views.

Monk's Cave NT property

Tony Ina and I put out 5 traps just up the coast from Sarah but ours were much higher up on the heathy top of the cliff and subject to a nasty cool breeze which blew over my 8w lamp.
Tony will post the stats to compare with Sarah's but in the meantime here is a pic of one of 6 Hedge rustics.  They were certainly in the right habitat which is more than can be said of the Scalloped Oak we caught!

Wednesday 21 August 2013

A Little more on Svensson's & Copper Underwing

Just a couple of photos to illustrate the difference on the underwings of these two species.
The first taken by a friend of mine today, the second my picture from the other day.


Copper Underwing


Svensson's Copper Underwing

Monday 19 August 2013

Svensson's copper underwing

Ina, these are Marc Botham's well manicured hands showing me what he confirmed as a Svensson's a couple of weeks ago.
Sorry not to put this in the Comments but don't know how to add a photo to comments.

Copper Underwing/Svensson's

Can anyone please confirm if this is Svensson's C.U.
Looks to have a good area of copper colour on the underside, but does the dark crossline have any significance?

Friday 16 August 2013

And Two Common Micros

And on the same window adjacent to honeysuckle were these two common but pleasing micros.
Carolyn & Evan.

Twenty-plume Moth [FL 8mm]

Mother of Pearl [FL 17mm]

Kitchen Window Light

We've not had much time to trap recently but our kitchen window light attracted several moths last night including these two attractive ones.
Carolyn & Evan.

Gothic

Scalloped Hook-tip

Thursday 15 August 2013

Favourite moths

Last night was mild and damp which seems to suit our garden moths. There were 33 moth species in the trap this morning, mainly 47 Large yellow underwing, 16 Flounced rustic, and 9 Flame shoulder. Also two of my favourites, Canary-shouldered thorn and Burnished brass.
Burnished brass

Canary-shouldered thorn

Epinotia nisella ?

Looking for confirmation of id please.
Is this the start of a bit of fun over the next few weeks with the very variable Epinotia nisella, 7mm wing length.


alder moth

on a hazel leaf in woodland adjacent to the hafod estate...
alder moth

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Rosy Wave Distribution

Hi Liz,

We have just come back from our travels and seen your great record.  I have looked at the distribution map for the Rosy Wave and have found only three sites.  I have given the latest date for Ynyslas.

Evan.

Sunday 11 August 2013

National Moth Night 2013

Well now NMN is over for another year. 
How did you do?
We put out a garden trap for two of the three nights, the other night was taken up with the event at NT Llanerchaeron.
The garden produced 49 species over the two nights, although this year's target 'Tiger' moths were in short supply, we only had Ruby Tiger.  The Garden Tigers were around in numbers a couple of weeks ago, but none this weekend.
Flounced Rustic and Agriphila tristella were the most numerous, our first Setaceous Hebrew Character and Dun-bar of the year in the garden and the surprise was a Rosy Marsh Moth which must have hitched a lift on our last trip to Cors Fochno, obviously we returned Rosy back where she belongs!
Photographs below of a couple of Pugs, Tawny Speckled and Lime-speck.












Thursday 8 August 2013

Rosy wave

This nationally scarce moth was caught by Liz at Ynys Las on Tuesday night. There have been very few records for it in Ceredigion. According to Adrian Fowles "The moths of Ceredigion" , it was first recorded here at Ynys Las in 1938, and small numbers were trapped there up to 1984. It is great to know that it is still present, but its numbers must be very low.

Rosy wave;  Scopula emutaria

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Crambus silvella

We found this rare micro on Cors Fochno yesterday afternoon. This is reported to be the only site in Wales where it occurs.
Crambus silvella

Thursday 1 August 2013

Rosy marsh moths and more

It was another productive night on Cors Fochno with 58 species being identified. There were 15 Rosy marsh moths, 34 True lover's knot, 16 Drinker, 13 Garden tiger, also 4 of these very striking Endotricha flammealis:

This wainscot is the size of Large wainscot but lacks the cross line of fine dark dots and is a bit earlier than its normal flight period. Dorset moths web site also has a photo of a Large wainscot without the dots. Could it be anything else?