Wednesday 30 April 2014

Common marbled carpet

The garden trap last night caught 12 macro species and 2 micros. The common marbled carpet and Small phoenix looked very fresh. Other firsts for us this year were Flame shoulder and Shoulder stripe. The micros were Alucita hexadactyla (Twenty-plume) and Elachista canapennella.
Twenty-plume

Small phoenix

Common marbled carpet

Monday 28 April 2014

Red Twin-spot Carpet

With a promise of frost later in the week we thought we had better trap in the garden while the going was good.
A ladder was needed to pot some of the pugs on the wall, but binoculars were needed for the Garden Carpet and Great Prominent further up.  Good fun this mothing business!!
New for the garden this year were Muslin Moth, Lsr Swallow Prominent, Red Twin-spot Carpet and the afore mentioned Garden Carpet.
Some photos below show the features on the underside of Red Twin-spot which are more brightly coloured orange/brown on the tip of the forewing than the Dark-barred Twin-spot.  And a Muslin Moth on my pencil...just because I like them!



Sunday 27 April 2014

Streamer

Four traps in and around our property yielded 14 macro species with the best catches in the woodland protected from the wind.  Common Quakers have ruled supreme this year unlike the Small Quakers of last year.  New for us this season were Streamer, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Least Black Arches and Brown Silver-line. 

Carolyn & Evan

Streamer

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Least Black Arches



Saturday 26 April 2014

Phyllonorycter sp.

Here is a photo of the unidentified Phyllonorycter micro moth caught at Ynys-hir yesterday. Apologies for the poor quality but it is so difficult to get these little moths to sit still.

Friday 25 April 2014

White-marked Distribution

Sarah,

Here is the map for the White-marked.  Look carefully in the south west corner
of the map as they are black open circles - pre 2000.

Evan


Ynys-hir

A cold, clear night produced 60 moths from 2 traps, one being a new Skinner with 125W MV bulb. There were 16 macro species and 1 micro. Common quaker and Hebrew character were the most abundant, others were: Brindled pug, Brown silver-line, Powdered quaker, Brimstone moth, Flame carpet, Red-green carpet, Great prominent, Early tooth-striped, Early grey, Scalloped hazel, Clouded drab, Lunar marbled brown, Iron prominent, and Chestnut. The micro is Phyllonorycter ?
Scalloped hazel

Thursday 24 April 2014

Wednesday 23 April 2014

cwm ystwyth

some moths (among many) that came to light in the ystwyth valley this week...
blossom underwing


(another) dyseriocrania subpurpurella

small phoenix

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Micro for ID

This tiny micro [FL 7mm] was in our trap close to oak woodland 2 nights ago.  Unfortunately rigor mortis set in after a night in the fridge to placate it sufficiently to photograph!  On gross inspection the forewing was golden-coloured and under the hand lens there some was some purplish speckling. I believe this to be the leaf-miner, Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, but would be grateful of verification / correction.
Carolyn.


Puss moth and others

A very successful night on Cors Fochno despite a battery connection failure on one of the two Heath traps. The other gave us about 150 moths, 25 macro species and 4 micro species. Most numerous were Common quaker (48), Hebrew character (40) and Clouded drab (19). First this year for us were Ruddy highflyer (7), Powdered quaker (3), Scalloped hooktip (2), Puss moth, V-pug, Iron prominent, Pebble prominent, Muslin moth (only the wings were intact), Narrow-winged pug, Least black arches.

In the micros there was Agonopterix ocellana, Acleris rufana, Phyllonorycter ulmifoliella and one as yet unidentified and unphotographed.
Narrow-winged pug

Powdered quaker

Puss moth

Monday 21 April 2014

Common Heath

At least four Common Heath seen on a walk round Cors Fochno boardwalk this afternoon.
Good numbers of Brimstone, GV White and Peacocks too.  Two micros in the fridge for later - we could have had more, but only two pots!!  A lesson there.

Sunday 20 April 2014

V-Pug

Two trappings in the past few nights yielded large numbers of Common Quaker and Hebrew Character.  New for us this season were the V-Pug, Barred Umber, Pale Prominent, Pale Pinion and Frosted Green.

Carolyn & Evan

V-Pug    


Barred Umber  



Pale Prominent


Mullein Distribution Map

Simon,

A good catch.  Here is the distribution map for the county.  It includes both adult and larval sightings.

Evan

Friday 18 April 2014

Mullein

A couple of good nights in my Aberystwyth Garden: Pebble Prominent and this Mullein last night;
Least Black Arches and Early Tooth-striped the night before.
Simon

Thursday 17 April 2014

Herald

A slightly warmer and cloudier night last night produced 26 moths in the garden trap. 9 species of macro moth including Great prominent (x2), Shoulder stripe (x1), and Herald (x2). All were firsts for the year for us.

Sunday 13 April 2014

A Cooler Night

Last night the temperature dropped to 2.8°C and our exposed garden trap had only four moths (Hebrew Character & Common Quaker).  The sheltered wood trap however produced 31 moths of 14 species.  New for us this year were Purple Thorn, Great Prominent, Lunar Marbled Brown and Water Carpet.

Evan & Carolyn.

 Purple Thorn showing dark central spot upper-side hind wing

Purple Thorn typical posture





Lunar Marbled Brown

Water Carpet (FW 17 mm)

Friday 11 April 2014

Phyllonorycter quercifoliella

Pretty little moth found at Ynys-hir.
Photo is a little fuzzy, but for a moth 4mm long....

Thursday 10 April 2014

Blossom underwing

Two traps at Ynys-hir last night produced 121 moths, of which just three were micros. Several firsts for the year for us were: Purple thorn, Early tooth-striped, Water carpet, Blossom underwing, Brindled beauty, Frosted green, Lunar marbled brown, Spruce carpet, Grey birch and  Brown silver-line.  49 Common quaker was the highest count of the night.
Blossom underwing
Brindled beauty
Grey birch
   Posted by Tony Allenby

Micro id?

This little chap came to light yesterday evening:
Forewing length 6-7mm ... can anyone give me a clue?
Thanks
Simon

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Agonopterix ciliella

This moth appeared in a garden trap in Aberystwyth recently.
Superficially it looks like A.heracliana, and many may have been recorded as such in the past as this is only the second confirmed record of ciliella in the county.
The diagnostic feature is five distinct dark lines in the hindwing cilia (see ukmoths photo) and also the underside of A.ciliella can be strongly tinged pink, though this one wasn't, probably due to it's age.

Agonopterix ciliella
If you find a moth that just does not look quite right for a species it is always worth a little further investigation.

Monday 7 April 2014

Latest Moth Mutterings

The latest Moth Mutterings and Newsletter is now available on BC's Mothscount web site.

http://www.mothscount.org/

And...on our recent trip to Lancashire....
Some photos of the actual Belted Beauty counted on 31st March, mentioned in Priority Moths News.
These moths used to be found in North Wales.
Belted Beauty, male

Belted Beauty, female

Sunday 6 April 2014

Posting on the Blog

For anyone involved with moths in Ceredigion, who would like to be able to share their experiences via this Blog, there is now a page which describes what you need to do. See "How to contribute to this Blog" in the list of "pages" down the right hand side.

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Upper Thames moths

Thought you might be curious about the UTB Moth Blog. It's a direct copy of your idea (Tony) and is a raging success. Just about all of the people interested in moth recording have now joined, with a bit of help from us on the less computer literate amongst them. There's a few extra bits compared to yours in the help area and we have laid down fairly strict rules on size and number of images and insist on real names for members (Wintermoth is Martin Townsend and he promises to rectify his name) and of course adding the posters name after the blog so the e-mail alert tells everyone who has written. http://upperthamesmoths.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm going to try and get Hereford to follow, they are some light years behind yourselves. Peter Hall

Micro-moth Maps

Some of you have asked what happens to new county first micro records. Well, I send the details to John Langmaid who produces a huge article on new county records annually in the Entomologists' Record, helped by Mark Young, and then he puts a dot on the county map. It's these dots that have been used for the MBGBI series and the supposedly forthcoming Tortrix volume that Keith Bland is working on. Well, they are now finally being digitised by BC following a grant and you can now look up your micro-moth to see if it is a county first or not by following this link: http://www.mothscount.org/text/108/micro_moth_distribution_maps.html
Like before, I am happy to forward any new county firsts so they get acknowledged and entered into the grand system. Via the link, you will see pdf's of scanned original pages and then some that are digitised too. This process is ongoing as and when funds permit. Peter Hall

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Orange Underwings

Taking advantage of the sunny weather this afternoon I visited the Birch woodlands just north of Tre'r-ddol to look for the elusive Orange Underwings.  Right on cue at around 4pm they made a showing - several singles and a dancing couplet.

Evan