Pale Mottled Willow Distribution

Sarah,

That was a good night!  The map says it all!

Evan

Vernacular names for micro moths

We have added a short article to 'pages' regarding vernacular names of microlepidopter.
This was written by Steve Palmer (Lancs micro recorder), in answer to a question by a local moth-er in that county. 
As I thought it may be of interest to those (us included) struggling to get to grips with the scientific names I asked if we could use it on the Ceredigion Blog.
Hope you find it interesting.

Some Autumn Moths

Our garden trap last night produced 12 species including these four rather attractive autumn moths. As Sarah mentioned earlier we have also seen a lot of Silver Ys including three in our trap. Retrieving the trap was a painful experience due to a wasp resting under the handle!

Carolyn & Evan

Red-line & Yellow-line Quakers

Merveille du Jour

Brindled Green

Brown-spot Pinion Distribution

Sarah

Another good record!  It is interesting that Waring in his most recent book states "it was formerly one of the most numerous moths in English lowlands, including gardens.  However, numbers in the Rothamsted national light-trap network declined substantially between 1968 and 2002 and it does not appear to have recovered since."

Evan

Cors Fochno - Moths and Mines

Having spent two days learning about Microlepidoptera leaf mines in Lancashire & Cumbria from Dr. Mark Young and Steve Palmer, we decided to try to put our new found knowledge into practise this morning.
After emptying the moth traps we looked over the surrounding foliage and found the following.



Mompha raschkiella on Rosebay Willowherb

 

This is a link to UK Moths if you would like to see the adult.

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=5995

 

Bucculatrix cidarella on Bog Myrtle

 

 

This little moth also feeds on alder and the mines can be found during August & September.

 

We also found Stigmella aurella, this is very common on bramble...look on any bramble patch and it will most likely be there.

 

Moths in the trap included... Canary Shouldered Thorn, Pink-barred Sallow, Small Wainscot, Pinion-streaked Snout, Chevron, Eudonia angustea and Brindled Green.

 

Brindled Green

 

Pink-barred Sallow on pink pencil!!

 

Orange Sallow Distribution

I thought this might be of interest Sarah.

Evan

A Warm Humid Night

A warm humid night produced 17 species from our garden trap, the most abundant of which was Red-green Carpet.  Here are four of the more attractive ones.

Carolyn & Evan

Gold Spot

Black Rustic

Brindled Green

Frosted Orange

Interesting micros

As reported by Liz, a nice damp night near Gwbert produced some interesting moths. As well as the Black-banded from one of the traps, Ina potted a second from the window of the bar of the hotel where we were staying. Back in the 1980s Adrian Fowles reported that a colony of Black-banded was discovered in this area in 1962.

We also caught two micros, which may be new records for the county. These have yet to be confirmed. The first was Rhigognostis incarnatella, which was discovered in Pembrokeshire within the last ten years, previously being reported from Scotland, Northumberland and parts of Ireland. How did it get to Wales? Could it have arrived by ferry to Fishguard?

Rhigognostis incarnatella

 The other was Epermenia falciformis which is common in south and eastern England and local in northern England. There are some records from Wales but none we know of from Ceredigion. Unfortunately not a great specimen and photographed through glass.

Black-banded Moth Distribution

Liz,

A good catch and as you say a scarce species.

Evan

Black banded moth

A scarce coastal species caught last night in spite of the drizzle/light rain and murky conditions in the south of the County.

snaps and traps

questions, questions, questions... if it were possible to benefit from any expertise or experience on the following, that would be much appreciated:

firstly, i'm planning a portable moth trap. (so far i've only ever used a 15w trap, run off the mains.) i'm not sure what wattage of light to go for. i had been considering the circular 22w bulbs but now wonder if that would be a mistake in terms of the battery ampere-hours required. how successful are 8w bulbs at bringing in the moths? (15w bulbs seem problematic as an 18 inch long bulb doesn't seem easy to carry around, or to mount on a portable trap.) if i used a 12 inch 8w bulb, what sort works best, and is it best to mount it vertically or horizontally? has anyone ever used a suspended trap with the light, and trap entrance, underneath? on occasions it would be useful to be able to run the trap for more than one night without having opportunity to recharge the battery in between. is that hoping too much, in terms of a practical power supply? does anyone have experience of how different types of batteries perform/last? are there any easily portable lead acid batteries? are there drawbacks to li-ion batteries in addition to the cost?

secondly, i'm wondering about buying a better camera. i've been using a compact point and shoot camera but the autofocus technology doesn't allow the lens to get close to the moth and it's difficult to avoid chromatic aberration around any edges. for micros, it's all but useless (and it's not great with macros, particularly if the light is anything less than bright). i don't have much technical knowledge of photography. does anyone know if any of the newer compact cameras are up to the job?

Unusual micro

I sent this little fellow off to Peter Hall who has returned with the id based on genitalia :Phyllonorychter ulmifoliella, a male leaf miner whose wing length was all of 3.5mm.  Amazing to be able to handle something so small especially as I had decapitated it in the photo shoot and the only complete part was in fact its abdomen.
According to the map on the website for leaf miners there is only one place where it has been found in Cere, yes you guessed: top left hand corner!
This was caught in my garden on 1st Sept so obviously there is a lot of recording to be done in the micro division.

Mullein Wave

A better night for the garden trap last night, one or two autumn moths appearing now.
The highlight being a Mullein Wave, not many records for this moth in the county amd so far as we can see, none last year.
The Copper Underwing photo does not look quite so obvious a line on the picture as it did in reality, not very easy taking pics whilst holding the moth I have discovered, even with a time delay on the camera.

Mullein Wave

Autumnal Rustic

Eudonia truncicolella

Brindled Green



Copper Underwing

Burnished Brass

Cabbage moth spine on tibia

See comment below previous pic

i d help please

Is this a Cabbage moth?  Caught last night in Prof Mike Hayward's lovely garden inland of Clarach.

A bright, clear and starry night last night brought a great change in the moth catch.
The Talybont garden trap and surrounding area only yielded a dozen species.
Amongst them was a late male Clay pictured below showing his black stripe or in this case a Y.

Agonopterix arenella, a species that feeds on Hemlock, was one of two micros.  The other was a Light Brown Apple moth, which we know feeds on Tony's apples!!

Id help required

We caught this moth on Cors Fochno this morning and were unable to identify it, can anyone help.

?

Cors Fochno

Checking the moth traps on Cors Fochno this morning was not a particularly pleasant experience with the heavy drizzle and swarms of biting midges, but we had some interesting moths.

Heath rustic

 This locally occurring moth feeds on heather which is abundant on the bog. The first county record was in 1970 and it was commonly found on Cors Caron, but not Cors Fochno at that time.

Round-winged muslin

 This is another local species feeding on lichens and mosses. It was reported as abundant on Cors Fochno in 1949 and 1950 but only a singleton was recorded in 1967. According to Adrian Fowles work, there were no more records on the bog, despite regular trapping (upto 1980's).

Broad-bordered yellow underwing

  This apparently common moth is not recorded very often in the county. According to Fowles it was widely reported in the 1950's and 1960's, but only in small numbers. In the 1970's and early 80's there was only one record.

Barred hook-tip

  This is a rare moth for the county but the third we have seen this year from 3 different locations. It is reported to feed on Beech but we don't know where the nearest beech is to the bog.

These were in with 162 moths of 34 species from 2 15W actinic traps. There were lots of Flame shoulder, Heath rustic, Chevron, Canary-shouldered thorn and Large yellow underwing. Also Sallow, Drinker, Dark arches, Dingy footman, Pinion-streaked snout, Marsh oblique-barred, Ear sp, Setaceous Hebrew character, Lesser yellow underwing, Square spot rustic, July highflyer, Rosy footman, Gold spot, Autumnal rustic, and Dark sword-grass.

Common/Dark Marbled Carpet

Right, you find a Common/Dark Marbled Carpet.

What is the first thing you do?
You turn it over to look for the under wing pattern, which I did.

And this is what I got....so what is it?

Buff-tip Caterpillar

We found this on a walk this afternoon.

Carolyn & Evan