Monday 14 December 2015
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.
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That's great, David. I'm definitely trapping tonight.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some very high individual counts of December moths but this is the 10th highest on record. The top 9 are all Ian's Rothamsted trap at Tregaron, the highest was 110 in 1976. Only 2 of the top 9 records are post year 2000, 62 in 2014 and 44 in 2004.
ReplyDeleteTony
That is very interesting Tony. If we get a suitable dry night in the next few weeks I'll risk putting the Skinner Trap outside and go for the record! I had it on in the cowshed last night but only caught one December moth
DeleteStill no December Moths for me. Just a Light Brown Apple Moth and an Angle Shades from last night.
ReplyDeleteTony I wish you hadn't told me that about Tillo's Roth trap! He missed one however as it was on my wall couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDelete