Saturday 31 October 2015

Small Seraphim

A very mild night with cloud cover last night made us put traps in three different locations.
Epirrita species showed a vast difference between sites - 59 individuals in woodland, 5 in open wetland and 0 in the garden.  Feathered Thorn was absent from the woodland.
Even though some near-by large Leylandii were cut down last year we did manage one Blair's Shoulder-knot in the garden.
Two species of note were a late Narrow-winged Pug and a Small Seraphim much later than any previous record we know of.  Does anyone know of such a late record of the latter species?
Ina and Tony
Narrow-winged Pug


Small Seraphim


Blair's Shoulder-knot

Wednesday 28 October 2015

More Micros

A quick search round Ynyslas this morning just after looking for birds at high tide.
A common leafmine on Bramble Coptotriche marginea.
Stigmella anomalella on Rosa priminellifolia - the Rose Leaf Miner.
Coleophora gryphipennella (cases) on Rosa priminellifolia - this is only the second record for vc46; but it feeds on all Rose species.

Coptotriche marginea

Stigmella anomalella
Coleophora gryphipennella
Ina

Monday 26 October 2015

Ectoedemia subbimaculella

We collected a few leafmines yesterday at Black Covert and amongst them was this one on Oak.
Underside of leaf - showing slit.

Larva in situ - showing dark head
http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/E.subbimaculella.htm

Thanks to Ben Smart for helping me out with confirmation of a new one for vc46.  I will be trying to breed this through but will have to wait until next June for it to emerge....fingers crossed.

Ina

Friday 23 October 2015

Mottled Umber

A warmer night produced seven species in our garden trap including our first Mottled Umber of the season.  The most numerous were the November Moth agg, and Red-line Quaker.

Carolyn & Evan

Mottled Umber

Tuesday 20 October 2015

Ynys-hir

A better night weather-wise last night brought out a few of the autumn species. 98 moths in the MV Robinson and 82 moths in a small 6w actinic 'bucket'....it was a bit crowded in there!  These are minimum numbers as a few made a quick exit, especially from the bucket as people started to turn up and were interested in the moths.  So honours were about even.
19 macro species and 4 micros including;
15 Epirrita moths most of which seemed to be November and at least one Autumnal - the delay in blogging was caused by examining some of these.
Chestnut, Red-green Carpet, Spruce Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Green Carpet - one v worn & one quite fresh, Merveille du Jour, Yellow-line Quaker (24), Green-brindled Crescent, Snout (7), Black Rustic (just 1), Grey Pine Carpet, Satellite, Large Wainscot, Brick, Red-line Quaker, Sallow, Copper Underwing (h/w examined) and Autumn Green Carpet.
Micros; Udea ferrugalis (the only migrant), Notocelia uddmanniana, Acleris sparsana and Acleris rhombana.





Sorry, but when I do the blog you get the micros first!!!  ;-)
Ina & Tony

Monday 19 October 2015

Cors Fochno

Nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year in two actinic traps on the bog last night.
The photo is of a Large Wainscot and a male Bulrush Wainscot, we should have included the Small Wainscot in the photo for comparison. I think we could have squeezed it in if we had thought of it!

Ina and Tony

Saturday 17 October 2015

Feathered Thorn

In spite of the minimum temperature of 0.7°C two traps produced 14 macro species last night.  The best of the new bunch was this Feathered Thorn.  Also included were a second generation Snout, Green-brindled Crescent, Satellite and some of our first Chestnuts for this season.

Carolyn & Evan

Feathered Thorn

Snout

Green-brindled Crescent
Satellite

Sunday 11 October 2015

Stigmella nylandriella ...

One or two leafmines from the last few days.

Stigmella nylandriella on Rowan, found up Cwm Clettwr. This is a county first but there must be more out there.
Stigmella nylandriella


Stigmella tityrella on Beech.  The mine starts with the egg laid near the midrib.
Stigmella tityrella


Stigmella hemargyrella.  Vacated mine on Beech, the egg is laid away from the midrib.
Stigmella hemargyrella

Other mines/larvae found - Parornix betulae, Phyllonorycter corylii, Phyllonorycter nicellii, Parornix devoniella on Hazel, Cameraria ohridella, and the ubiquitous Stigmella aurella on Bramble and Avens.

Saturday 10 October 2015

Autumnal Moths

Our usual three traps last night produced 12 macro species.  These included Yellow & Red-line Quakers, our first November Moth for this year, a 2nd generation Dark Arches and a very fresh 3rd generation Common Carpet.  The only micro was an attractive Rusty-dot Pearl.

Carolyn & Evan

Yellow & Red-line Quakers

November Moth

Common Carpet

Rusty-dot Pearl

Thursday 8 October 2015

Merveille-du-jour and Flounced chestnut

Two traps in woodland last night, where the temperature fell to only 8 C, gave us 23 macro and 3 micro species. It was exciting to get a Flounced chestnut, which is quite scarce in the county away from Aberporth. Our first Merveille-du-jour of the year (sorry couldn't resist including the photo they are so spectacular) and Dusky thorn. The full set of Pine, Grey pine, and Spruce carpet were present. Most numerous were Yellow line quaker and Red-green carpet. Amongst the others were Pink-barred sallow, Silver Y, Large wainscot, Pinion-streaked snout, Brindled green, Rush veneer, and Acleris rhombana.

Brindled green

Rush veneer & Flounced chestnut

Large wainscot

Merveille-du-jour
Tony & Ina

Monday 5 October 2015

Autumnal Rustic



Unlike some others I am getting very little in the trap these days, so it is nice when something new turns up. I have not seen an Autumnal Rustic before. Apart from this I have recorded a couple of Green Carpets, a couple of Green-brindled crescents, an August Thorn and several as November Moth agg. It seems a shame that positive identification in these cases is terminal, or at least very uncomfortable for the moth.



Sunday 4 October 2015

Bulrush Wainscot

With the prospect of a warmer night than of late we put a couple of traps on Cors Fochno last night.
A small 6w actinic light produced the best catch 14 macro and 2 micro species, the other 15w trap had a further 3 species but only 6 species in total....I like that little bucket!!
Amongst the catch some late Chevrons (7) were a surprise, our first Brick of the year, Pink-barred Sallow (15) and Heath Rustic (10) some showing the pink hue of a lot of Cors Fochno moths, the pick of the catch was a female Bulrush Wainscot and what a big girl she was!
If anyone out there can tell me what the gorgeous crane fly is I would be grateful, it came a close second to the Wainscot.
Small Wainscot

Bulrush Waiscot
Pinion-streaked Snout


Heath Rustic

Brick

Ina and Tony.

Friday 2 October 2015

Haworth's Minor


While doing water vole surveys in the Tywi Forest on wednesday we stumbled across this moth at approximately SN776606. I'm reliably informed that it's a Haworth's Minor, a new moth for me (thanks to Sam and Steve for id and to Steve for improving my rubbish photo!). We also had larvae of white ermine and light knot grass.