Unseasonal visitor

 This Mottled Grey was at my kitchen window last night. Is this the earliest date for Ceredigion?

Scarce Umber at Llawrcwrt

 Nice to get something at least nominally Scarce, even if it turns out to be quite common. Its sole companion in the trap was a rather tatty Feathered thorn.

 

Rusty-dot Pearl

 This was in my trap on the night on 7th November, among 7 species of macro including 21 November Moth agg.

Rusty-dot Pearl

Macros included my first December Moth of this autumn.

Talybont Garden

The warmest night for a week or so and some cloud cover instead of the bright moon we have had lately.  Don't get me wrong I love to look at a clear night sky, unfortunately the moths are not too keen to come out to play!

 Just three moths last night with a hope of more to come as the weather warms over the next few days.    Emmelina monodactyla, November Moth agg and Black Rustic.     Ina and Tony

Oak Eggar Larva

 We found this small pre-diapause Oak Eggar larva on bramble in an annual attempt to tidy the garden this afternoon.

Carolyn & Evan

Moths at last

 After some very disappointing results in our garden recently it was good to visit some good woodland habitat. The result was 120 moths of 22 species. Most numerous were Chestnut and November Moth Agg. followed by Merveille du Jour and Grey Pine Carpet. Most surprising was a Small Fan-footed Wave, which has recently been producing a small second generation.

Tony & Ina

Merveille du Jour

Grey Pine Carpet

Grey Pine Carpet

Small Fan-footed Wave

Red-line Quaker

Yellow-line Quaker

Mottled Umber

Mottled Umber

Cross Inn, Llanon

After a long lull, it was nice to find 10 moths of 6 species last night. The common Marbled Carpet decided to fly away before I could take its photo but here are the Spruce Carpet, Red Green Carpet, Satellite and Green Brindled Crescent.

Pale Tussock Larva

 We encountered this Pale Tussock larva crossing a forestry track near Artists' Valley today presumably on its way to pupate.

Carolyn & Evan

Acrolepia autumnitella

Last month (20th) I collected a caterpillar from a large "window" in a leaf (by the football club in Borth). At the time I thought that the plant was bindweed, but I now think it was bittersweet. (Ina won't believe any of my leaf mine records now!) Within a day it had crawled out of the leaf and we watched it spin a chrysalis, and then this morning it had hatched: Acrolepia autumnitella.

Lunar Underwing

 I hope that I’ve identified this correctly.(My only moth last night!)

 It’s only my second in Cross Inn and I thought I’d post it as there seems to be so little activity at the moment.

Povolnya leucapennella

 I am posting this photograph of P. leucapennella mainly because it is the best picture of its distinguishing feature that I have taken, I should say it was easier as the moth was deceased!  

While you may be able to see the tufts through a hand lens it is another thing entirely taking a half decent photo of a live moth only 6mm in length.

There are other similar Gracillariidae but they do not have the tufts on segment 2 of the labial palps as shown.   Ina.

Autumn has arrived

 Finally we caught some moths in our woodland trap last night - 11 moths of seven species including our first Mottled Umber, Green-brindled Crescent, Yellow-line Quaker and Chestnut for this year.

Carolyn & Evan

Mottled Umber

Green-brindled Crescent

Yellow-line Quaker

                                                                               Chestnut

A cold night on the bog

 With a temperature of only 10 C at dawn on Cors Fochno only a small selection of moths had taken shelter in our traps. Only37 moths, 15 macros and no micros. Two firsts for us this year were Heath Rustic and Red-line Quaker.

Tony & Ina

Marbled White Spot

 This very fresh Marbled White Spot was in our woodland moth trap this morning.  It appears to be a partial second generation moth.  Looking at its flight histogram in the new B.C. Atlas this moth has been recorded before in mid-September. 

Carolyn & Evan

Brindled Green

 I'd not come across this moth and had to be told what it was. Tony also tells me it's a first for Llawrcwrt. It last had an outing on the blog in 2015 so perhaps time for another.

County first

 Steve Walsh caught this Cypress Pug in Bow Street this week. This is the first Ceredigion record for this species, which is established in southern England and south Wales. They have been extending their range steadily northwards since being first discovered in Cornwall in 1959. 

On the same night Steve also recorded a Palpita vitrealis, only the eighth county record.

Tony & Ina

Rearing of Mystery Larva

 We found this young larva in our woodland moth trap on the fourth of July this year and as we had no idea what it was we decided to try and rear it. It conveniently took to eating bramble leaves and went through four instars before pupating a month later.  The adult moth finally emerged 5 weeks later revealing itself, somewhat to our surprise, as a female White Ermine; unfortunately its wings failed to unfold properly.  Is this a partial second generation moth or was it too well fed and nurtured emerging early instead of pupating over the winter?

Carolyn & Evan    

     
                July 4th                                               Next instar July 6th         

      

    Next instar July 11th                                      Final instar July 23rd   

                                           

                                        Emerging pupa August 4th

                                           

                                                                                                                                         Adult White Ermine September 12th

First Black Rustics for the Garden

 We are promised a mini heat wave this coming week but with the appearance of the first Black Rustics in the garden, Autumn has quite definitely arrived in Talybont.

Lyonetia clerkella and Stigmella aurella mines are very obvious now too, the former on Cherry and Apple and the latter of course on the Thornless Blackberry that for some reason escaped the attentions of the Blackbirds this year.

Only eleven species graced us with their presence in and around the trap; Dusky Thorn, Brimstone, Silver Y, Lesser and Large Yellow Underwing, Common Marbled Carpet, Spruce Carpet, Square-spot Rustic, Black Rustic and a very worn Setaceous Hebrew Character.  The only micro was Eudonia angustea.  A few photos below.    Ina and Tony

Black Rustic

Brimstone

Common Marbled Carpet

Common Marbled Carpet

Dusky Thorn

Silver Y

Spruce Carpet

Spruce Carpet

Square-spot Rustic

Heath Rustic

 A relatively poor night but we caught our second ever Heath Rustic in our garden trap.  On initial inspection it looked like a rather small unseasonal Hebrew Character.

Carolyn & Evan