Freyer's Pug

A much better night in our garden last night apart from a small bucket trap carefully placed near to a Honeysuckle in full flower, which was skittled presumably by one of the local cats. The highlight was a Freyer's Pug which was a first for me in Ceredigion. There are only 19 county records with 3 modern records all from Simon's garden in Aberystwyth. We had 30 Macro species and 8 micros. Most numerous were Treble Lines followed by Heart and Dart.
Tony & Ina

Freyer's Pug

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Tawny-barred Angle

Least Black Arches

Alder Moth

Hedya nubiferana

Figure of Eighty

Cydia pomonella

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Obscure Wainscot

A rather breezy night on the bog! only 16 species in total but one of them was an Obscure Wainscot. This species was only discovered in the county last year with records from Cors Fochno and Aberporth. Hopefully last night's record shows that they are now breeding on Cors Fochno. Amongst the others were a rather unusually marked Devon Carpet, Peppered Moth, Scalloped Hook-tip and Small Seraphim. The micros were Diamond Back and Phylloporia bistrigella.
Tony & Ina

Obscure Wainscot

Devon Carpet

Scalloped Hook-tip

Small Seraphim

Llawrcwrt - Barred Umber

I'm quite envious of Carolyn and Evan with all their hawkmoths. I've only seen one Eyed Hawk-moth and never seen a Small Elephant Hawk-moth. The only less common moth in my trap yesterday was this Barred Umber. I have caught one or two in recent years and 4 in 2016

Lead Belle and a Plethora of Hawk-moths

Last night's moth trapping included this Lead Belle (early flight period and tear shaped black central spot) from a local woodland we have not trapped in before and four species of hawk-moth from our garden trap.

Included in the trap were several Maybugs and this Carrion Beetle.  The last edition of E moth from Butterfly Conservation is encouraging us to send these Silphidae records to iRecord.

Carolyn & Evan

Lead Belle

Eyed Hawk-moth

Poplar Hawk-moth

Elephant & Small Elephant Hawk-moths

Black Sexton Beetle (Nicrophorus humator)

Yellow tail caterpillar on thrift ...again.

In June 2013 I found a YT caterpillar on thrift far away from other vegetation and thought it might have been an accidental occurrence as I couldn't be sure it was actually feeding but today this one was on Thrift at Aberporth beach and adjacent to other vegetation so it obviously chose to be here and feeding.

Cross Inn, Llanon

A better evening than I have had of late with Pale Prominent, Fox Moth, Buff Tip, Poplar Hawkmoth, Hebrew Character, White Ermine, Dark Barred Twin-Spot Carpet and new to me Least Black Arches and Bee Moth (micro). I’m terrible at identifying moths like the one in the top photo but I’m sure that one of you will help!

Talybont Garden - again!

A much smaller catch this morning after some pretty cold nights recently.
Seven moths, seven species. Plus a Green Oak Tortrix from a larva collected on 7th May, emerged overnight in the 'nursery'.
The only one that did not want it's photo taken was a Flame Carpet...I think it may have heard about the recent 'facial recognition camera' arguments!!
Ina and Tony

Brown Rustic

Garden Carpet

Heart and Dart

Marbled Minor agg.

Muslin Moth

Spruce Carpet

Tortrix viridana

Talybont garden

A much better night for the garden gave us 29 macro moth species and 3 micros. Firsts for this year were Brimstone Moth, Pale Tussock, Small Phoenix, Common Lutestring, Flame Carpet, White-spotted Pug, Foxglove Pug, Garden Carpet, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Marbled Coronet (first garden record since 2010), Sandy Carpet, and Ochreous Pug (2 of them, only other garden record in 2016). The micros were mostly LBAM, Diamond Back, and Cydia ulicetana.
Tony & Ina

Marbled Coronet

Ochreous Pug

Aberystwyth Seraphim

Leaning out of the bedroom window with the net at full extension I retrieved this Seraphim (shouldn't just one of them be a Seraph?) from high up on the house wall:

Other macros attracted to the trap included White-spotted Pug and Grey Birch (garden first). Among the micros, Eudonia angustea, Argyresthia cupressella (2), Caloptilia azaleella and Aspilapteryx tringipennella.

Ynyslas

Twenty four species last night, not including the ones that got away, and only three May Bugs! Hooray!!
Cinnabar moths attracted to the light, probably an under-estimate of 33.
Green Carpet flying off very easily so again there were probably more than the 17 we counted.
Singles of Rustic Shoulder-knot, Pebble Prominent, Eyed Hawkmoth, Shears, Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, Purple Bar, Common Marbled Carpet and a very worn Brindled Pug.
Other larger moths - Heart & Dart, Ruby Tiger, Common Wave, Treble Lines, Shuttle-shaped Dart, 3 late'ish Shoulder Stripe, Brown Rustic, Flame Shoulder and Common Pug.
Micros - Cochylis atricapitana, Crambus pratella, Agonopterix yeatiana, Scoparia pyralella and a Coleophora (that can be one of at least 8.)

Some very bad photos below, our so called Tough camera turned out to be not so though after all!
Ina and Tony