Saturday 27 April 2013

Shoulder Stripe

In spite of a wet night preceded by hail and with a minimum temperature of 0.1°C we caught 21 moths of eight species in one garden and two woodland traps.  A first for us this year was this rather beautiful Shoulder Stripe.

Carolyn & Evan
Shoulder Stripe

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Purple Thorn

One Heath trap in a mixed woodland last night produced 20 moths of 11 species. Purple Thorn and Water Carpet were our first for this year. The full list was: Common Quaker 6, Clouded Drab 3, Hebrew Character 2, Twin-spotted Quaker 2, 1 each of Purple Thorn, Pale Pinion, Dotted Border, Water Carpet, Chestnut, Engrailed (a very dark specimen) and Diurnea Fagella.
Purple Thorn
Water Carpet
Engrailed

Sunday 21 April 2013

Orange Underwing

At last I found one flying in Longwood near Lampeter.  Given the warmth and shelter along the ride I was hoping for more.
Worth keeping an eye out for them at Cwm Soden next Sunday(butterfly walk with Lin) if its sunny.

Saturday 20 April 2013

Hafod

The disappointing turnout of moths (due to the freezing and moonlit conditions last night) belied the excellent habitat of the Hafod estate however other creatures took advantage of the latter and showed up:cuckoo called twice, water vole swam about in a pond and a peacock butterfly did a fly- by. A  dozen two-legged creatures also attended the convivial meeting and lavished unexpected attention on the very few but very variable Clouded Drabs and a less well marked Quaker!
We will try Hafod again in June but it will be short notice when the night is warm and humid so keep an eye on this blog!
Many thanks to Tony Ellis and staff at the estate for their generous help; John Rainbow for access to his private garden within the estate and to Red Liford for his part in the arrangements.

Hafod event

A beautiful sunny morning followed a cold night in the stunning Hafod estate. Unfortunately moths were in short supply with only a few Clouded Drab, Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Diurnea Fagella, and the Brindled Beauty seen below.

Friday 19 April 2013

Late Early Moth

Last nights garden trap produced small numbers of Orthosia species and this Early Moth. This is outside the normal flight period for this moth but the latest one recorded by Fowles in "The moths of Ceredigion" was 19/04.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Cors fochno

We ran two heath traps on the bog last night and had 10 macro species and 3 micro. Early tooth-striped 4, Yellow horned 3, Hebrew character 9, Early grey 7, Clouded drab 4, Engrailed 1, Common quaker 2, Red sword-grass 4, Red chestnut 5, Small quaker 2, Diurnea fagella 1, Emmelina monodactyla (Common plume) 1, and Eriocraniidae sp (see separate post).

Micro id - Eriocraniidae sp

This moth was found on the outside of a trap on Borth bog. It looks like one of the Eriocraniidae but which one? The moth has a wing length 6.5 mm.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Hafod event reminder

The next event will be held this Saturday, 20th April, starting at 10 am. See "events" page for details.

Monday 15 April 2013

Micro ID

Please could someone help with the identification of this micro we caught in the garden trap.

Carolyn


A Warm Night at Last!

We placed three traps on Saturday night - two in nearby woodland and one in our garden - and were rewarded with a total of 84 moths These included five Orthosias (Small, Common, Twin-spotted Quakers, Hebrew Character &  Clouded Drab), Early Grey, Chestnut & Red Chestnut, Brindled & Double-striped Pug, Mottled Grey, Early Tooth-striped, Engrailed & Early Thorn.

There were also 3 micros - Diurnea fagella, Acleris literana & one unknown (see separate post.)
Early Tooth-striped

Brindled Pug


Engrailed
Early Thorn
Diurnea Fagella
Acleris literana

Saturday 13 April 2013

Cors Caron event

There was a good turn out for the first event of the year. Liz had positioned traps around the bog and some local woodland. Despite a minimum overnight temperature of just 2 C, there was a good number of macro moths of 11 species: Yellow horned, Hebrew character, Small quaker, Common quaker, Chestnut, Clouded drab, Early grey, Red sword-grass, Oak beauty, March moth, and Red chestnut.


Early grey
Red chestnut
Yellow horned

After a refreshing coffee break, Ian showed us his Rothamsted trap and gave a very interesting explanation of its operation and the history of the recording scheme, which has been running for the last 50 years. The records have shown a dramatic drop in the numbers of moths recorded over that time, which should be a concern for all of us.



With little prospect of seeing the Orange underwings due to the lack of sunshine, we had a prolonged lunch at the Talbot in Tregaron.













Wednesday 10 April 2013

Unidentified Micro

Please comment below if you are able to help with the identification of this moth. It was caught last night in a mixed woodland and has a wing length of 8-9mm.

What a difference a woodland makes

After getting only a single moth in the garden on the previous night we switched to a woodland last night and were very pleased to catch 73 moths of 20 species.

 The macro moths were: Satellite 7, Oak beauty 4, March moth 7, Brindled pug 11, Pale pinion 2, Chestnut 12, Early grey 1, Common quaker 6, Twin-spotted quaker 3, Hebrew character 1, Clouded drab 4, Grey shoulder-knot 1, Red-green carpet 1, Engrailed 1, Small quaker 1, and Early thorn 1.

 The micros were: Diurnea fagella 6, Agonopterix ocellana 1, Acleris literana 1, and one as yet unidentified.

  The Clouded drab is described as "very variable", these are the 4 that we caught.


Tuesday 9 April 2013

Moth of the day

In fact the only moth taken in the garden last night. This was my first trapping session this month, there was no frost but a stiff breeze.

Twin-spotted quaker
Posted by: Tony Allenby

Friday 5 April 2013

Urgent,Welsh speaking moth-er needed for TV programme

We have been asked to provide a Welsh speaker to show moths to children in Cardigan for a S4C TV programme.....anyone out there?  Contact our County Recorder if you can help.

Monday 1 April 2013

Dates for your Diary

Forthcoming moth meetings:
April 13th  Cors Caron: details in the events section
April 20th  Hafod, Mansion site and woods.
May 11th   University of Aberystwyth Bioblitz weekend
May 18th   Cardigan area private garden
June 14th   Denmark  Sacred Earth Trust
August 11th Llanerchaeron NT property
Other dates will be added later.
For all locations full details will be found in the Events section when they become available.

orange underwings.....not

Went down to Longwood near Lampeter yesterday, as it was sunny and the wood is sheltered from the easterly winds, to try and find O U's.  It was warmish in the most sheltered parts but no moths and hardly any birds were to be seen or heard. Unsurprising as pussy willows are still the tiny grey fluffs they were a month ago.  No bumble bees seen either.