Early Pale Brindled Beauty

Our Winter Moth Scheme garden trap last night produced this rather early Pale Brindled Beauty as well as the usual Winter Moths and a Mottled Umber.  We started this scheme last year trapping every week and our first Pale Brindled Beauty then was on the 13th of February.  Waring states that the usual flight period is January to March but occasionally they can be seen in late November and December.  Ours may be related to the abnormally mild climate for this time of year.  The minimum temperature last night was 6.1°C.

Carolyn & Evan

Winter Moths, Mottled Umbers and One December Moth

Well, our count of December Moth last night did not come up to LLawr Cwrt's numbers! I think the one had got lost!
In addition we only had two other species - 42 Winter Moths and 40 Mottled Umbers, no Scarce Umber or Northern Winter this time.
Of the total number 74 were in and around a 6w actinic bucket - see photos below - and only 9 around a 125w MV, none inside the trap.

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

December Moth

I have been looking back at the December 7th entry last year. This is for Ina, Lizsnell, Rosemary Royle and Sarah. It appeared in a newly acquired MV Skinner trap cunningly placed in the cowshed over a wet and windy night.  I rather like them too.

Small Seraphim

A very mild night with cloud cover last night made us put traps in three different locations.
Epirrita species showed a vast difference between sites - 59 individuals in woodland, 5 in open wetland and 0 in the garden.  Feathered Thorn was absent from the woodland.
Even though some near-by large Leylandii were cut down last year we did manage one Blair's Shoulder-knot in the garden.
Two species of note were a late Narrow-winged Pug and a Small Seraphim much later than any previous record we know of.  Does anyone know of such a late record of the latter species?
Ina and Tony

Narrow-winged Pug

Small Seraphim

Blair's Shoulder-knot

More Micros

A quick search round Ynyslas this morning just after looking for birds at high tide.

A common leafmine on Bramble Coptotriche marginea.

Stigmella anomalella on Rosa priminellifolia - the Rose Leaf Miner.

Coleophora gryphipennella (cases) on Rosa priminellifolia - this is only the second record for vc46; but it feeds on all Rose species.

Coptotriche marginea

Stigmella anomalella

Coleophora gryphipennella

Ina

Ectoedemia subbimaculella

We collected a few leafmines yesterday at Black Covert and amongst them was this one on Oak.

Underside of leaf - showing slit.

Larva in situ - showing dark head

http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/E.subbimaculella.htm

Thanks to Ben Smart for helping me out with confirmation of a new one for vc46.  I will be trying to breed this through but will have to wait until next June for it to emerge....fingers crossed.

Ina

Mottled Umber

A warmer night produced seven species in our garden trap including our first Mottled Umber of the season.  The most numerous were the November Moth agg, and Red-line Quaker.

Carolyn & Evan

Mottled Umber

Ynys-hir

A better night weather-wise last night brought out a few of the autumn species. 98 moths in the MV Robinson and 82 moths in a small 6w actinic 'bucket'....it was a bit crowded in there!  These are minimum numbers as a few made a quick exit, especially from the bucket as people started to turn up and were interested in the moths.  So honours were about even.
19 macro species and 4 micros including;
15 Epirrita moths most of which seemed to be November and at least one Autumnal - the delay in blogging was caused by examining some of these.
Chestnut, Red-green Carpet, Spruce Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Green Carpet - one v worn & one quite fresh, Merveille du Jour, Yellow-line Quaker (24), Green-brindled Crescent, Snout (7), Black Rustic (just 1), Grey Pine Carpet, Satellite, Large Wainscot, Brick, Red-line Quaker, Sallow, Copper Underwing (h/w examined) and Autumn Green Carpet.
Micros; Udea ferrugalis (the only migrant), Notocelia uddmanniana, Acleris sparsana and Acleris rhombana.

Sorry, but when I do the blog you get the micros first!!!  ;-)
Ina & Tony

Cors Fochno

Nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year in two actinic traps on the bog last night.
The photo is of a Large Wainscot and a male Bulrush Wainscot, we should have included the Small Wainscot in the photo for comparison. I think we could have squeezed it in if we had thought of it!

Ina and Tony

Feathered Thorn

In spite of the minimum temperature of 0.7°C two traps produced 14 macro species last night.  The best of the new bunch was this Feathered Thorn.  Also included were a second generation Snout, Green-brindled Crescent, Satellite and some of our first Chestnuts for this season.

Carolyn & Evan

Feathered Thorn

Snout

Green-brindled Crescent

Satellite

Stigmella nylandriella ...

One or two leafmines from the last few days.

Stigmella nylandriella on Rowan, found up Cwm Clettwr. This is a county first but there must be more out there.

Stigmella nylandriella

Stigmella tityrella on Beech.  The mine starts with the egg laid near the midrib.

Stigmella tityrella

Stigmella hemargyrella.  Vacated mine on Beech, the egg is laid away from the midrib.

Stigmella hemargyrella

Other mines/larvae found - Parornix betulae, Phyllonorycter corylii, Phyllonorycter nicellii, Parornix devoniella on Hazel, Cameraria ohridella, and the ubiquitous Stigmella aurella on Bramble and Avens.

Autumnal Moths

Our usual three traps last night produced 12 macro species.  These included Yellow & Red-line Quakers, our first November Moth for this year, a 2nd generation Dark Arches and a very fresh 3rd generation Common Carpet.  The only micro was an attractive Rusty-dot Pearl.

Carolyn & Evan

Yellow & Red-line Quakers

November Moth

Common Carpet

Rusty-dot Pearl

Merveille-du-jour and Flounced chestnut

Two traps in woodland last night, where the temperature fell to only 8 C, gave us 23 macro and 3 micro species. It was exciting to get a Flounced chestnut, which is quite scarce in the county away from Aberporth. Our first Merveille-du-jour of the year (sorry couldn't resist including the photo they are so spectacular) and Dusky thorn. The full set of Pine, Grey pine, and Spruce carpet were present. Most numerous were Yellow line quaker and Red-green carpet. Amongst the others were Pink-barred sallow, Silver Y, Large wainscot, Pinion-streaked snout, Brindled green, Rush veneer, and Acleris rhombana.

Brindled green

Rush veneer & Flounced chestnut

Large wainscot

Merveille-du-jour

Tony & Ina

Autumnal Rustic

 

Unlike some others I am getting very little in the trap these days, so it is nice when something new turns up. I have not seen an Autumnal Rustic before. Apart from this I have recorded a couple of Green Carpets, a couple of Green-brindled crescents, an August Thorn and several as November Moth agg. It seems a shame that positive identification in these cases is terminal, or at least very uncomfortable for the moth.

Bulrush Wainscot

With the prospect of a warmer night than of late we put a couple of traps on Cors Fochno last night.
A small 6w actinic light produced the best catch 14 macro and 2 micro species, the other 15w trap had a further 3 species but only 6 species in total....I like that little bucket!!
Amongst the catch some late Chevrons (7) were a surprise, our first Brick of the year, Pink-barred Sallow (15) and Heath Rustic (10) some showing the pink hue of a lot of Cors Fochno moths, the pick of the catch was a female Bulrush Wainscot and what a big girl she was!
If anyone out there can tell me what the gorgeous crane fly is I would be grateful, it came a close second to the Wainscot.

Small Wainscot

Bulrush Waiscot

Pinion-streaked Snout

Heath Rustic

Brick

Ina and Tony.