This picture shows about half the 43 December Moths in the little actinic trap last night. There was a fair bit of milling around, but as far as I could see, there was only one female, She was very noticeably larger. It was rather like spotting the queen bee in a hive. I don't think I'd seen one before. There were no other species present.
Stop Press 15th December - Recovering the release box this morning, happy chance, these two were still in it.
That's great, David. I'm definitely trapping tonight.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some very high individual counts of December moths but this is the 10th highest on record. The top 9 are all Ian's Rothamsted trap at Tregaron, the highest was 110 in 1976. Only 2 of the top 9 records are post year 2000, 62 in 2014 and 44 in 2004.
ReplyDeleteTony
That is very interesting Tony. If we get a suitable dry night in the next few weeks I'll risk putting the Skinner Trap outside and go for the record! I had it on in the cowshed last night but only caught one December moth
DeleteStill no December Moths for me. Just a Light Brown Apple Moth and an Angle Shades from last night.
ReplyDeleteTony I wish you hadn't told me that about Tillo's Roth trap! He missed one however as it was on my wall couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDelete