Marsh Pug

One more moth which we retained for further examination is a Marsh Pug. The books say that it flies in May and June and the caterpillars feed on the flowers and seeds of Field Mouse-ear and is mainly day-flying. We have found other counties with records in July and August, so does it sometimes produce a second generation? Another problem is that Field Mouse-ear is not known to be present in Ceredigion, so are there other foodplants? We have found one site which says it feeds on Common Mouse-ear and also Stitchwort.

On the positive side it is very small (7.5mm wing length) and has all the right features. Hopefully we will revisit the site in some afternoon sunshine to try and find some others.

There are 5 historical county records but the last one was in 1941!

Tony & Ina

Tissue Moth

Yesterday we recorded moths at Werndeg, up the Leri valley from Talybont, as part of a recording day organised by WWBIC, the Local Records Centre. We ran 4 traps around the meadows and woodland which caught 1236 macro moths of 90 different species. Almost 50% of those were Large Yellow Underwings which packed themselves like sardines into the egg boxes. The best of the bunch was a Tissue, only the 8th non-RIS record since 2000.
 Tony & Ina

Tissue at bottom-left

Tissue

Garden Tiger moths

The effect of environment

was under investigation

when Sidebotham took

several thousand Garden

Tiger moth larvae (Arctia

caja) and raised them in

separate lots on different

food plants (Sidebotham

1870b). There was no ef-

fect of diet on colour over

two generations, but he

did note that hind wing

colour differed between

stocks collected at differ-

ent locations. Specimens

in his collection illustrate

variation from almost

white forewings to almost

black, and some differenc-

es in hind wing colour (Fig

2). The inheritance of wing patterns has still not been properly invesgated (Rob-

inson 1971)

Joseph Sidebotham’s Lepidoptera. (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301771434_Joseph_Sidebotham%27s_Lepidoptera accessed Jul 25, 2017

Garden Tiger

I can't see in Waring, that this is one of the named forms of Garden Tiger. I should have checked the hind wings (but didn't) It's certainly a stunning moth though, and worth an outing on the blog. Are such excursions from the norm quite common, or is this extreme?

Endothenia quadrimaculana

Two County Records for this very large Tortrix;

26 June 1949 - E.C.Pelham-Clinton
26 June 1954 - G.G.E.Scudder

As the recorder I am in good company...but the moth is three weeks late!
Ina

Llawrcwrt Garden Trap 18th July

 A moth I haven't seen for several years, a Twin-spot Carpet, turned up in the trap yesterday.

                       Also present, a particularly severe looking spectacle (wearing a Bowler hat)

A spot of dusking

We spent an hour at Ynyslas last night, mainly looking for Rosy Wave.  How often is it that your target species doesn't turn up?  Well last night was an exception the first moth netted as we got out of the car was a Rosy Wave!
Also Small Blood-vein, Scarce and Dingy Footman, Single-dotted Wave, Smokey Wainscot, Agriphila straminella, Eucosma campoliliana....

Small Blood-vein

Rosy Wave

E. campoliliana

Smokey Wainscot

Beautiful Carpet

Maybe I shouldn't complain about doing the school run: Beautiful Carpet outside the classroom yesterday.

Also Argyresthia dilectella.

Garden Moths 14thJuly

A few from the garden last night. 29 species in all including a few not pictured - Garden Tiger, Iron Prominent, Yellow-tail, Buff Arches, Common Carpet,Flame Shoulder, Double Square-spot, Burnished Brass, Peppered, Small Phoenix, Buff Ermine, Grey Dagger, Grey Arches and of course Large Yellow Underwing and Dark Arches.

Buff Footman

Coronet

Crambus perlella

Dotted Clay

Green Pug

Poplar Grey

Yponomeuta padella/malinellus agg.

Cross Inn, Llanon

I'm putting this photo on because I think that this is a Cabbage Moth and it doesn't seem to be well recorded with photos on this blog.

Rush Veneer and Cydia splendana

Caught near Tregaron in a wooded garden 11th July.

Gothic

Thanks to Tony's updated Moths of Ceredigion It is easy to find out more about the status of the moths that turn up in the trap. I see that the Gothic is uncommon so give it an airing here. I had originally thought it was a Feathered Gothic but checking indicated that it was rather early for that. Side by side I can just about spot the difference, but when they are crawling about on an egg box in isolation I find it tricky..

Blackneck

This moth appears to be having a good year. It is quite rare in Ceredigion with only 18 records since 2000 and only 71 in total. We had 3 at Ynyslas recently and another at a site near Bow Street, where it was last recorded in 1971. The distribution map shows several sites with old records (the black dots) so it is worth keeping an eye out for one of these in or around your traps.
Tony

Wave from last night

Thoughts on this one please, could it be Lesser Cream Wave ?

Mark C

Micro Moths at Ynys-hir

The previous post was Tony's record of macro moths on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
I can now add we recorded 33 species of micro moths including the two below, Agonopterix angelicella and Britain's smallest Plume, Adaina microdactyla. I'm sure you can work out which is which!
We must have lost a lot more as the moths were very lively I think due to the warmth and heavy rain shower just as we were collecting the traps, unfortunately we could not give them chance to settle as this was a public event for the RSPB. Well we all enjoyed the fly-past! 💨

Moths at Ynys-hir

Despite the deluge when we first arrived at the reserve it proved to be a very good night for moths. We recorded 83 species of macro moth and quite a few escaped (some with assistance from a Great Tit). Thanks to those who turned out to see and help.
Tony & Ina


Bordered Beauty



Brussels Lace



Common Emerald



Muslin Footman

Coronet



Double Lobed



Slender Brindle

Small Seraphim & Gold Swift

Trapping in our nearby mixed woodland two nights ago produced a good number of moths including two firsts for us.

Carolyn & Evan

Small Seraphim

Gold Swift (m)

Gold Swift (f)

Grey Arches

This beauty turned up in the trap this morning and is, I think, a first for Llawrcwrt. I certainly don't recall seeing one before. The total haul was 43 individuals of 23 species. The most number of species I've ever had was was 37 0n the 25th June.

Magical Moths at RSPB Ynys-hir

Sunday morning 9:00 until 11:00

We will be opening the traps from 9am in the usual place on the car park, weather permitting. Join us if you can.

Tony and Ina

Hedya salicella

Another 'new' one for the county - Hedya salicella.
Other micros C.culmella (obviously), Crambus pascuella (still not found silvella this year), Scoparia ambigualis, Donacaula forficella.

Wainscots

We ran a Skinner trap on Cors Fochno last night and got good numbers of Lackey, Straw Dot, True Lover's Knot, and Marsh Oblique-barred. We had four wainscot species, Striped, Smoky, Common and Southern.
Tony & Ina

Striped Wainscot

Smoky Wainscot

Southern wainscot

Southern Wainscot

Common Wainscot

Small Mottled Willow

We ran two traps last night, one in the garden and one in an oak woodland not far away. The cool north-westerly wind kept temperature and moth numbers down a little bit, but the garden produced a Small Mottled Willow, rather worn but who knows how far it must have travelled to get here. This is only the eighth county record with the most recent ones being in 2010, 2000, and 1995.

The woodland gave us a lovely Cloaked Carpet, a nationally scarce moth which appears to be very much on the increase in Ceredigion in the last few years.

Tony & Ina