Denmark Farm

I also trapped last night, at Denmark Farm as part of a public event, 0 public but 25 species from 3 traps and 3 punters turned up for this morning's session.  The temp dropped from 14C to 9.2C and back up to 14C by 7am.
Most numerous were Flame Shoulders and Brimstones though most of the latter were outside the traps.
Had the ones you mention Tony, including our common sp of yellow underwing though not in numbers.  At home I had first Feathered Gothic of the season.
Of the micros there were: Epinotia ramella, Rhopobota naevana, rusty dot pearl and some others I must send off to Peter H either in person or as pics!
My 160w blended MV lamp managed to cook two moths as they managed to get between the mesh and glass cover, died for H&S I shall put on the headstones though no public arrived so died in vain would be more accurate.  My trusty 15w synergetic failed and the stink emanating from the control box explains the recent reduced catches; electronic melt-down.  This moth-ing business is becoming expensive!
Have a go at these two.

More garden moths

Last night was the warmest and calmest for some time and the catch added up to 99 macros of 22 species, 17 micros of 9 species. 43 Large yellow underwing , 11 Flame shoulder, 9 Setaceous hebrew character was over half the total. Also Lesser, Least, and Lesser broad bordered yellow underwings, Centre-barred sallow, Dusky thorn, Oak hook-tip, Oblique carpet, Silver Y, and Square-spot rustic. In the micros there were Agriphila tristella and geniculea, Rusty-dot pearl, Light brown apple moths, Codling moth, Garden pebble, and Twenty plume.

Centre-barred sallow

Square-spot rustic

Agriphila geniculea

Twenty plume moth

Tony

Anomalous and Drinker caterpillar

On the hill next to Soar Y Mynydd today the giant machines were removing yet more trees to feed that hungry Swansea power plant but just below on a sunny track lined with heather, gorse and fireweed in flower were two excitements for me: Toffy disturbed an Anomalous which hid in some bracken but flew off before I could get the cameraman in position.  I caught one on the cliffs at Strumble a couple of years ago and went recently to repeat the experience (well really to look at seabirds) but Bertha's tailend blew the trap over so I was more than pleased to see one within the County today.  Further down the track was this splendid caterpillar which according to UK Leps is in the instar just ready to hibernate for the winter.  When it wakes up it will stuff itself on the appropriate grasses and pupate in June so we can enjoy the adults in July and August.
I'm probably alone in being pleased to see

Drinkers which thankfully still seem to be abundant, perhaps its because they feed cuckoos and nightjars, such extraordinary birds.

Shuttle-shaped Dart Distribution Map

Tony,

Here is the map for your Shuttle-shaped Dart which shows an interesting
northern distribution.

Evan

Talybont garden moths

On a clear night when the temperature did not drop below 9C I caught 44 moths, 14 macro species and 4 micros. Large yellow underwing and Flounced rustic were most numerous, others included Common marbled carpet, Rosy rustic, Garden carpet, Small wainscot, Double-striped pug, Treble-bar, and 2 Shuttle-shaped dart (a common moth in the south and centrally, which has been extending its range northwards, but one which I have not recorded here before this year). In the micros A. tristella and E. postvittana topped the list, others were A. geniculea U. ferrugalis (Rusty-dot pearl).

Shuttle-shaped dart

Tony

help please

Don't tell me this is Yps parenthesella….

Latticed Heath Distribution Map

Well done Sarah!  Another good record.

Evan

Seeing red

I'm not sure if you get Red Underwing your way, but as it's common here just across the border, you may well do. I've walked around the house 3 times now in the last 10 days and sitting, well camouflaged on the walls, I counted 1, then none and today 3. It may be well worth a walk around your homes over the next few days to see if you can spot them too. Peter Hall

This one was actively flying in the sunshine before
 roosting high up on the SW house wall

These 2 were on the W facing wall

Oblique carpet

I caught this one on Aug 5th at Coed Y Bont.  I thought it looked a bit old but was probably one of the first out in second generation?

Oblique carpet

Undeterred by the promise of another cold night, we put a couple of Heath traps on wet grassland at Ynys-hir last night, close by lots of Bulrush hoping for some wainscots. In fact we had 11 macros and 2 micro species (grass moths A. tristella and A. straminella). We had our first Sallow of the Autumn,  a very fresh, second generation Green carpet, and 2 September thorns. Most interesting was a second generation Oblique carpet which very quickly escaped but not before we had an id shot.

September thorn

Sallow

Tony& Ina

Treble-bar

As Ina stated - a much cooler night -but we still managed 10 macro species in a woodland trap.  We were please to to see this Treble-bar which we caught for the first time last year.  There is an abundance of its larval food plant, St. John's Wort nearby.

Carolyn & Evan

An Autumnal Night in Talybont

Cold, down to 3c with the odd downpour of rain last night.  Most moths were behaving as though it was autumn, that is to say more outside than in the trap. So it may not be down to species (as I thought), but temperature that causes this behaviour.  One day I will study this further.
Just eleven species, most numerous - 22 A.tristella. Flounced Rustic almost outnumbering Lg.Y.Uw. and this rather worn Rusty-dot Pearl.

Micro help please

Suggestions welcomed for this micro (FW 7-8mm) which came to light last night:

This closest I can find is Crocidosema plebejana, which seems unlikely.
Thanks
Simon

Uploading Photos Update

I've just uploaded and installed a zillion updates (well, 16) and uploading photos seems to have been restored under Explorer, so I am assuming one of the updates was a fix with the issue with IE11 and Windows 7. I know there was one other person using the UTB blog who had the same problem. Hopefully all resolved now. Peter Hall

Uploading Photos

I had extreme difficulty uploading the images to my Cross Inn posting. When I tried the Upper Thames blog also, the same issue arose. I think it is one of the recent updates from MS Explorer. To solve this I downloaded yet another web browser - this time Firefox - and it allowed me to add them without issue. Searching the web for solutions, this seems to be a recent common problem. Peter Hall

Cross Inn

I visited your shores over the weekend to stay with the previous owners of Brynarth Country Guesthouse, who are now close by one of your two Cross Inns. I say that because Doris, my SatNav decided to take us to the other one. Despite Bertha, I had a reasonable catch, running one 125w mv trap overnight with so far 42 species of macro and 11 micro, with a few still to look at. A tip for you all that struggle to separate Trachycera (now Acrobasis) suavella from advenella: See the red head and red front to the thorax? That is absent from suavella and visible with the naked eye too. And the Campion image, note that the two stigma (reniform and orbicular) merge at the dorsum end - they stay separate in the Lychnis.
Walking down the lane at night from the house, I was delighted to see many Magpie moths flying in the torchlight. Even in the rain from Bertha, they were out and about and one came to the trap also.
Peter Hall

Trachycera (Acrobasis) advenella

Campion

 

Black Arches

Rosy Rustic

Magpie moth

Dune moths

A single actinic Heath trap at Ynyslas last night produce 16 species of macro moths including these 3 dune specialists:

Archer's dart

Shore wainscot

White-line dart

Tony

Gothic

The garden trap last night produced 21 macro species and 7 micros. Large yellow underwings were most numerous, others included Black arches, Swallow prominent, Antler, Setaceous Hebrew character, Shuttle-shaped dart, Six-striped rustic and Small square spot. A single Gothic was a first for this year, although the flight period is mainly June and July according to the books.

Light brown apple moths were most numerous micros, with 7 males and 1 female. The numbers of Agriphila tristella and A. straminella seems to be increasing at the moment.

Gothic

Six-striped rustic

Tony

Sallow kitten and Double kidney in spite of the deluge!

Trapping Coed Y Bont on Tuesday night I concentrated on the large area of clear fell which is has well developed secondary growth of birch and willow.  It howled down with rain so I was not hopeful but caught over 50 species without the micros in 2 traps, 10w and 15w synergetics (green tubes).
I had not caught either of these two before so was well pleased.  Sorry they are on different scales, the kitten was more impressive than it looks.
Others included Oblique carpet, Devon carpet,Small wainscot, Green carpet,  Least yellow underwing, and the first Flounced rustic this season.  Micros included the largest one(?) Mother of Pearl and one of the tiniest, Argyresthia retinella.