Purple thorn

Despite the rain I had 66 moths and 15 species visit my trap at Troedrhiw seiri, Bontgoch

 last night, including this lovely fresh purple thorn.

Improved Macro Moths document

There is now a Pdf version of the Ceredigion Macro Moths 2015 document. Thanks to Vicky King for converting my Word document into this much more open format. This will make it accessible to all Mac users and people who don't use Word.

Tony

Ceredigion Macro Moths 2015

Several people have asked me when I am going to update "Fowles". After several months in front of my computer I have produced a Word document which reports the state of macro moths in the county up to end 2015. Most of the information is presented in the forms of distribution maps, flight period graphs, and abundance of records over the last 50 years. The document contains one page per species, so that is over 500 pages. There is an alphabetic index so that you can easily get to the page for the species you want to look at. The indexing is explained in the document but has only been tested on Word on Windows, so I am expecting feedback from people on other platforms to say whether it works or not!

The document can be accessed via the "Documents" page on this blog. The file is about 20Mb and will have to be downloaded to access it. It is being shared by a link to "Dropbox" but you do not have to be registered with Dropbox to be able to download the document.

I will be updating to include 2016 sometime.

Tony

Wildlife Trust Meeting (WTSWW) Monday 3rd April

Next Monday evening Chris Shorthall will talk to the North Ceredigion Local Wildlife Trust Group about Rothamsted Insect Survey Traps and what they have taught us.

7pm in Room C22 of the Hugh Owen Building, Aberystwyth Uni. 

All welcome.

Welsh Wave

Least Black Arches

The earliest record in Ceredigion of Least Black Arches by 10 days according to Tony.

New for year were 4 x  Brindled Beauty

and 2 x Early Tooth-striped

Two Pugs for comparison - Double-striped and Brindled

Blossom Underwing, Lunar Marbled Brown, Frosted Green.

Seventeen macros and only one micro species (Diurnia fagella) in the Ynys-hir traps this morning.
The three headline moths plus the return of Satellite and Oak Beauty after a couple of weeks gap and a Pale Pinion most notable. Common Quaker and Hebrew Character the most numerous and still one or two Chestnut hanging on in there!

Blossom Underwing

Lunar Marbled Brown

Frosted Green

Satellite

Twin-spotted Quakers and a few others

Despite being a cool night  with temperatures around 4°C there were 43 moths and 9 species in the trap this morning -  Twin-spotted Quakers(3)  (this one being particularly new and fresh), Hebrew character (15), March Moth (12, Clouded drab (5), Small Quaker (2), Dotted Border (2), Early Grey (2), Common Quaker (1), and a sword grass that I'm still thinking about.

Orange Underwing

We spotted at least 6 Orange Underwing this afternoon, walking up the coast path from the lay-by just north of Tre'r-Ddol. There is a lot of Silver birch there and a few Willows. The moths were seen feeding at Willow flowers. The next few afternoons are forecast to be nice and sunny, which is ideal for seeing these spring moths.

Tony & Ina

Allt y Crib

Three Early Thorn and a Brindled Pug was all we had last night but the walk up the hill must have done us good!

Dates for you Diary

Some dates for events at RSPB Ynys-hir are now on the EVENTS page.
There will be more events to come so please keep checking.
Tony and Ina

Butterfly Collector Prosecuted

"Butterfly Conservation has today welcomed the prosecution of a collector found guilty of illegally catching and killing the UK’s rarest butterfly."

Not only rare butterflies but moths too.  Follow the link to read about it here.

Herald & Red Chestnut

Last night we ran 2 Heath traps in a small oak woodland near Talybont, and recorded 106 moths, 14 macro and 5 micro species. 3 of them; Herald, Red Chestnut, and Diamond-back, were new to us this year. Most numerous were Small Quaker (16), Engrailed (14), Brindled Pug (13), Early Grey (10), Diurnea fagella (13), Tortricodes alternella (10).

Tony & Ina


Diamond-back

Double-striped Pug & Hebrew Character

Herald

Pale Brindled Beauty

Red Chestnut

Dotted Border female

I have not been enthused enough to search diligently for the wingless females of some of our wintertime moths so this one came to see me!
With its big wing stubs it is the most interesting to look at.

 I didn't, however, expect to find it underneath our plastic soffit at least10m as the bug crawls from a gappy willow hedge and much further from any other food plant.  When released onto the shaded base of a large moss covered oak tree it immediately scuttled off sideways like a crab to hide under a longer frond of the moss.

Pale Pinion

I'm still only getting a handful of moths of two or three species. However this rather tatty specimen turned up today which is probably a first for the site. I don't recall having seen one before.

V-pug

Pete Skinner, fresh from his travels, put his trap out last night and recorded 47 moths of 17 species. Amongst them was a very early V-pug. The previous earliest county record was on 30th March. In the new edition of the Waring and Townsend field guide, the flight period of the first generation is given as Apr - Jun, which is a month earlier than in the previous edition.

Tony

Oak Nycteoline

For several years I have been looking for Oak Nycteoline. This morning at Ynys-hir I got my "lifer" and it was well worth waiting for. There are only 4 previous records for the reserve, all in 2007.

In total we had 118 moths of 22 species, 17 of them macro moths. Most numerous were Engrailed, Common Quaker, Chestnut, Pale Brindled Beauty, Brindled pug, March Moth, Hebrew Character, Dotted Border, Tortricodes alternella, and Acleris ferrugana/notana. Others were Red Sword-grass, Pale Pinion, Early Grey, Clouded Drab, Twin-spotted Quaker, Small Quaker, Double-striped Pug, Oak Beautry, Diurnea fagella, Acleris schalleriana, and a Beautiful Plume.

Tony & Ina

Oak Nycteoline

Pale Pinion



Red Sword-grass

Talybont Garden

We didn't do as well as Sarah last night but 6 macro and 1 micro was more than we expected...must have been the patio and path cleaning we did yesterday!
Dotted Border, Clouded Drab, Small Quaker, Common Quaker (one grey, one brown), Hebrew Character, Oak Beauty and Common Plume.

Diurnea fagella...

Only seven species last night. Pale Brindled Beauty, Yellow Horned, Common Quaker, Chestnut, Dotted Border, Diurnea fagella and Acleris notana.
Ina and Tony

Chestnut

Common Quaker

Diurnea fagella - a pale one

Diurnea fagella - better marked

Yellow Horned

Micro Review - Updated

My apologies to Liz for omitting her record of Prochoreutis myllerana from the micro review of 2016. It was not missing from the data, just the report.
It has now been corrected and the updated version of the report is available via the 'Documents' tab above.
If anyone else has noticed any errors please email me.
Ina

Yellow Horned

A rather cool night (2.2°C) but our first Yellow Horned for this year together with Satellite and Oak Beauty.

Carolyn & Evan

Brindled Pug and Hebrew Character

Eight macro and three micro species this morning. Our first Brindled Pug and Hebrew Character of the year plus Dotted Border, Spring Usher, Chestnut, March Moth, Pale Brindled Beauty, Oak Beauty, Tort.alternella, Acleris ferrugana agg. and Ypsolopha ustella.
The bonus was we collected them all in before the rain started!
Ina and Tony

Ypsolopha ustella

Brindled Pug

Hebrew Character

Oak Beauty

Tortricodes alternella

March Moth

2016 Review

Reviews of the mothing year, macro and micro, for 2016 are now available on Dropbox via the Documents section above.
Just click on the relevant link.
Ina