More from Llangeitho

 Busy night in the mothing world, last night, and busy for me this morning, going through over 150 moths in and around my home-made LED trap. In all, 51 species, including a Blomer's Rivulet, new for me - and rather surprising, as I am not aware of any elms in the immediate area. A lovely moth.

Others, good to see included Grey Arches, Alder Moth, Beautiful Carpet and Sharp-angled Peacock. Like others, I have had numerous Treble Lines this year, including thirteen on 17 May.

Llangeitho moths waking up

 A mild, damp night (23rd May) gave me a busy morning, with over 140 moths of 44 species coming to my LED trap light. Standouts included Square Spot, Beautiful Snout, Little Emerald, Green Arches, Rivulet and several Peach Blossom. I have the impression that several moths are appearing a little earlier in the season than usual?

Brown Rustic

Little Emerald

Beautiful Snout

Had a nice privet hawk moth at Aberaeron yesterday and a what I think is a scorched carpet. When I entered it into the recording spreadsheet it asked for a photo so presumably we don't get many in Ceredigion? It was my first to the garden at least. 

A success for the Privet sector

 Another new Hawkmoth for our Aberystwyth garden last night.

Privet Hawkmoth

Also Lobster, Orange Footman and Vine's Rustic. Not many moths, but good ones.

 Common Heath moth and Micropterix aureatella at Cross Inn forest today.

Whose Lime is it anyway?

A good night for the garden trap, with this Hawkmoth on the outside:

Lime Hawkmoth

A strong supporting cast included Devon Carpet:

Devon Carpet

Also FFY Figure of Eighty, Poplar Grey, Clouded Silver, Buff Ermine, Elephant Hawkmoth, Mottled Pug, Willow Beauty, Peppered Moth (3), and I was pleased to see a Scorched Wing, Peach Blossom, Puss Moth, Common Wave and 3 Buff-tips.

Figure of Eighty

 ObsIdentify says that these are 3rd instar larvae of Emperor Moths. Paul Taylor thinks so too. What do others think?

They are in the turning circle at the end of the forestry track into Cross Inn woods on the south side of the road to Bethania.

Bumper catch at Bontgoch

In 40 years of mothing I have never had a more spectacular catch in my garden as I did last night. Certainly not at the start of May!  43 species and 193 moths plus numerous May bugs filled my MV trap and carpeted the surrounding grass under goat willow and a mixed thorn hedge. 

The pick of the catch were Orange Footman and Barred Umber and it was great to see species like White Ermine and Scorched Wing in double figures. A spring Setaceous Hebrew Character was a first for me as was Grey Pine Carpet.

 

And then they came

Having bemoaned the lack of visitors to my garden trap, last night they came. Knot Grass and Light Knot Grass, Bactra lancealana (3), and Dioryctria abietella. Also first for year Golden-rod Pug, May Highflyer, Swallow Prominent, Heart and Dart, Mottled Rustic, and Azalea Leaf Miner.

May Highflyer

Swallow Prominent

Azalea Leaf Miner

Knot Grass

Dioryctria abietella

A mine that I collected from a tree last November, that I had labelled as Acer sp. but which I now believe to be Oriental Plane, hatched today: I think it is Phyllonorycter platani.

The ox-eye daisies in Aberystwyth cemetery are just starting, and I was pleased to find two Bucculatrix nigricomella and a Dichrorampha acuminatana yesterday evening.  Also c30 Glyphipterix fuscoviridella, Aspilapteryx tringipennella, Monopis laevigella, and the now ubiquitous Tachystola acroxantha.

Bucculatrix nigricomella

And finally, an Ochreous Pug on my walk to work this morning. 

Rheidol Woodland

At last a trapping session in woodland in the Rheidol Valley last night. Forty different species, with most numerous being Brindled Pug (25), Great Prominent (23) and Scoparia ambigualis (12). Good to see moths that rarely venture into the garden, including Nut-tree Tussock, Peach Blossom, Water Carpet, Red-green Carpet (2), Scorched Wing (3), Pebble Hooktip, Marbled Brown (4), Oak Nycteoline, Chinese Character, White-pinion Spotted and Pale Pinion. This Square-Spot and White Ermine decided to spend the night together:

Now is the time!...Pachyrhabda is out!

 Now is the time to look for the alien micromoth Pachyrhabda steropodes and there has been a spate of records in the last week from Carmarthenshire after I prompted local moth`ers to look for it. It occurs on soft shield-fern, a species growing on slightly base-rich soils and is often associated with hart`s-tongue fern and a cover of ash trees in woods or hedgerows. Soft shield-fern is not rare in Ceredigion.

Where established this tiny moth (at first glance it can look like a pale-golden gnat to the uninitiated) can engage in courtship swarms of the host fern, but where newly-established it can occur as singletons or in small numbers. In dull weather it can be flushed by gently tapping the fern with a stick (or your foot) - it usually returns to the same or nearby spot. 

Later in the summer/autumn/early winter, the elongated larval spinnings distinguish it from other fern spore-eating micros.

It is spreading really well in SW England (where it originated from gardens in Abbotsbury) and it has now been found in most parts of Carmarthenshire (it was first seen at the National Botanical Gardens at Llanarthne in the Tywi Valley in the early 2000s). It is also spreading well in Pembrokeshire.

Come on, Ceredigion recorders! - it must be in south Ceredigion by now (it`s in the Teifi Valley area of Carms).

               Above: larval spinnings on soft shield-fern and, below, an adult moth.