Wednesday 31 July 2013

Pug...Larch?

22mm wingspan
Larch wood 200m away.

Pug for ID?

Could this be as slightly early second generation Golden-rod Pug [FW 10mm] found last night in our conservatory? There is plenty of Ragwort around for the larval food plant and Golden-rod in the garden next door.
Carolyn.


LLanerchaeron public trapping

NOTE: CHANGE OF DATE  Llanerchaeron trap event is now taking place on Thursday Aug 8th/ Friday 9th.
Turn up for an evening white sheet trap from 7pm (bear in mind that sunset is 9pm!) Gwen, the NT Ranger will have some potted moths to look at and hopefully more will start flying if its a warm still evening.  On the 9th I'll be in the carpark at 9am showing the results of the overnight trapping effort.  Llanerchaeron is an excellent habitat and we have had some good moths even when the weather has been less than kind.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

Welsh waves

One 15W actinic Heath trap in mixed woodland last night produced 120 moths of 40 species. Pick of the bunch were 6 Welsh waves, 15 Buff footman, 2 Large emerald, Scallop shell, and Beautiful snout.
Beautiful snout

Large emerald

Scallop shell

Welsh wave

Swallow Prominent vs Lesser Swallow Prominent

Regarding comments on a previous post (Suspected Moth).
These photos may help to clarify the differences between Swallow & Lesser Swallow Prominent.




Swallow Prominent

Small Emerald Distribution


Monday 29 July 2013

Small emerald

Red's neighbour in Cwmystwyth found a Small Emerald, no Old Man's Beard up there but clematis in the garden.
Any chance of a map Evan?

Sunday 28 July 2013

And Two Darts

And two darts from a garden in Aberystwyth- two examples of the Shuttle-shaped Dart and one of the coastal Crescent Dart.
Carolyn and Evan.






 
































Another Hot Night

Four traps in and around our rural property yesterday yielded 160 moths of 48 macro and 10 micro species.  Here are a few of the more attractive ones:

Male Orange Swift

Large Emerald

Six-striped Rustic

Tawny-barred Angle

Tawny-barred Angle- form nigrofulvata    

Carolyn and Evan.

Trefechan moths

Some pictures of interesting moths caught by Simon in his Trefechan garden over the last couple of weeks: dingy shears, bordered sallow, crescent dart, sharp-angled carpet, pinion-streaked snout

Some micros

Can anyone confirm or correct our ids for these recently caught micros:
Acleris notana: wl 9mm: Borth bog
Mompha raschkiella: wl 5mm: Borth bog

Scoparia subfusca: wl 12mm: Borth bog
Agriphila inquinatella: wl 12mm: Garden
Apotomis betuletana: wl 10mm: Garden

Marasmarcha lunaedactyla (Crescent plume): wl 10mm: Ynys las dunes

Suspected moth

We are still working through photos from our latest trapping on Cors Fochno. There is an interesting comparison of two Lesser swallow prominents with completely different colouring on the head. Also new to us and not often recorded in Ceredigion, a Suspected moth. Confirmation of identification would be appreciated.
Chevron

Scalloped hook-tip

Suspected ?

Lesser swallow prominents

Friday 26 July 2013

Rosy Marsh Moth

Two bog specialists from this morning.
One Nb and one RDB.
What a wonderful place Cors Fochno is!!

Rosy Marsh Moth - Coenophila subrosea




Marsh Oblique-barred - Hypenodes humidalis


Thursday 25 July 2013

Ynys Las

Meanwhile I set a 60w actinic near the dunes last night which was the worst night for ages weather-wise but still caught a good selection of moths including 25 Garden Tigers, my first 2013 Least Yellow u'wings,a worn Scallop Shell and this Blackneck which was unusually small just 14mm. This is outside the range quoted in Waring but maybe the weather earlier this year had an impact as it would have been a final instar larva in May?
We also had a worn Lackey which reminded me to mention a large larval web in the hedge on the Aber-Clarach road which should be over by June but looked fresh enough a couple of days ago.
Note: the colour of the Blackneck is accurate in the first pic

Scarce Burnished Brass

Together with 23 of its common relative I had a single Scarce Burnished Brass in my trap this morning. Unfortunately it departed suddenly when I was almost ready to press the shutter! I have previously caught this species at Troedrhiw seiri, Bontgoch, again a singleton, on 29th July 2001.

Cherry bark tortrix

The weather has certainly been ideal for moth-ing with lots of people getting record catches. We had our best night ever in the garden on Monday night with nearly 200 moths in a Skinner trap with 30W actinic light. There were 59 different species. There were also lots of Ermine micro moths which we were unable to identify with any confidence, a beautiful Cherry bark tortrix and Dioryctria sp. which is probably Abietella given the published distribution map and the habitat, but comparisons with UKMoths and other web sites suggest it could be Sylvestrella.
Dioryctria sp. WL 15mm

Enarmonia formosana: Cherry bark tortrix

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Welsh Wave at Bontgoch

I enjoyed one of the best night's moth trapping in over 20 years at my home in Bontgoch last Thursday (18th) catching 58 species including Welsh Wave and Satin Beauty, both first timers for me.

Beautiful Hook-tip

Wendy reported finding this Beautiful Hook-tip in her trap in the South of the county, along with more than 50 other species. This is an extremely rare moth for this county with only a few previous records.

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Another Figure of eighty

From Ian Tillotson,
 
I recorded a single Figure of Eighty here (Tregaron) last Saturday (20th.).
 

Friday 19 July 2013

confirmed confused


it's from last weekend at bryn bras, but it's not often seen, so here is a photo.
confused

Help with ID please

I had a good catch in my garden trap in Llechryd on Wednesday night. 50 + species identified but this one is puzzling me.
The closest I can find is Webb's Wainscot but that seems a bit unlikely for here although the trap is near wetland with Yellow Iris which it needs. Underneath it has a broad black bar across its abdomen and the hindwing is greyish.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks  Wendy

Palpita vitrealis?

I'd welcome an opinion on whether i really could have found Palpita vitrealis on the back of my curtain in Trefechan last night (the moths seem to prefer the reflection of the Actinic light on the curtain to the trap itself).

  Simon

Thursday 18 July 2013

Swallow-tailed moth

There were 41 species in the garden trap this morning including our first Swallow-tailed this year and a very pretty Barred Yellow.
Swallow-tailed moth
Barred Yellow
Pebble prominent and Riband wave

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Big night in the traps!

Our garden trap (15w actinic green tube) contained 119 moths plus those that escaped which comprised 51 species.
Notable was the number of garden tigers: 5  Is it a good year for them?
I  had a Muslin Footman, a garden first !
The other trap was in some birch/willow carr down on the bog: the 10w Goodden light brought in 131 moths of 40 species including 3 fresh Large Emeralds and a Marsh Oblique Barred.  The light was enclosed by the trees and below a bank so had very little throw, either these moths travel about more than I think or the trees were loaded with them!
The most numerous were:Double Line x 27,  Double Square Spot x 10.  There is an oakwood opposite the carr albeit out of sight of the lamp so I thought.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Southern Wainscot?

Two of the Wainscots caught on the bog last night needed further investigation. The photographs below lead us to think that they were Southern Wainscots. Wing length 18mm, row of dots on hind wing, and a faint collar.

Comments please.

Back to bog moths

After a week in SW Scotland we were back on Cors Fochno last night with two 15W lights (1 Skinner and 1 Heath). We recorded 141 moths of 42 species of which only one was a micro, Catoptria Margaritella, which was a bit disappointing. Most common species were Striped and Smoky Wainscot, and True Lover's Knot. Two bog specialists were Round-winged Muslin and Small Rufous.
Round-winged muslin

five-spot burnet

this emerged from a cocoon that i found at the north end of cors caron in june.
five-spot burnet

Monday 15 July 2013

Yet another ID needed please

This Tortrix has defeated us I'm afraid.  Any ideas please?

Wing length 7mm

Brussels Lace PLUS

Evening all!!!
I say this as it has taken us most of the day to sort out the forty species of moth in the Talybont garden trap last night.  These include three as yet unidentified micros.
The warm weather made the moths very active and by the time we had finished we were not sure who needed sedating most, the moths or us!
Anyway some photos for you.


Who're you lookin' at?
Anania crocealis




Brussels Lace