December Moths Galore

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.

 

Feathered Thorn

Don't get excited!  I caught this on Oct 29th here at Plas Treflyn and going through some images it made me check again as its a slightly unusual colour and lacks almost completely the spots between the cross lines.  I caught 4 but only photographed this one so must have looked a bit different at the time.

Moths at Ynys-hir

A dry, mild but windy night did not produce the hoped for number of moths. A 6W actinic and a 125W MV produced 20 moths of 8 species. We had December moth (5), Mottled umber (5), Scarce umber (4), Yellow-line quaker (2), Winter moth, Feathered thorn, November moth agg. and Rusty-dot pearl.

Scarce umber

Tony, Ina & Pete Skinner

Pale Pinion and Scarce Umber

Just as I thought the season had tailed off, a couple of new moths in the trap last night. A Pale Pinion and a rather bruised Scarce Umber. Tony tells me that I recorded the Scarce Umber in 1989 and 1991 but the Pale Pinion is new to the site. I am trapping later than I did years ago so am in new territory. These spur me on to continue. It's new territory for the site as well so who knows what might turn up?

Phyllonorycter nicelli?

I think this is a Hazel leaf and I think this is therefore a P. nicelli mine, found in the Llanbadarn road cemetery last weekend:

From below

From above

Simon

Recording Late Moths

Just to clarify, this does not mean dead ones!

Colin Plant (Entomologist's Record) has made the following request:

"Some people are already sending me short Notes on individual species, but it would be better if CMRs would consider compiling and sending a brief overall summary of "late" moths in their own county for publication, so that these odd reports are placed on permanent record for the benefit of future recorders."

In view of this should any recorder come across what they consider to be a late record please get in touch with your County Moth Recorder with the details as soon as possible.

Regards
Ina and Tony

Climate change?

After several disappointing results from our garden trap, we set two traps in woodland at Ynys-hir last night. What a difference, over 100 moths with 22 macro species and 4 micros. The big surprise was a Dark arches, which is reported as having a partial second generation in the Autumn in the south. With this and the Small seraphim from a couple of weeks ago, could we be experiencing a warming climate? There were large numbers of "November" moths plus Red-green carpet, Grey pine carpet, Spruce carpet, Mottled umber, Green brindled crescent, 4 Merveille du jour (still hanging on), Feathered thorn, Chestnut, Northern winter moth, Silver Y, and a couple of December moths (for Ina). In the micros there was a Rusty-dot pearl, 3 Acleris ferrugana/notana, Crocidosema plebejana, and possibly Carpatolechia decorella which, if confirmed, will be a first for VC46.

Crocidosema plebejana

Dark arches

Tony & Ina