169

Lots of moths in the garden trap, but 169 of them were Heart and Darts. Cydia fagiglandana and Neofaculta ericetella and a probable Nematopogon schwarziellus were new for the garden. Poplar Grey, Small Magpie, Agapeta zoegana and Cydia pomonella were new for the year.

Miller

Just a selection of the moths we caught after a very warm night.

Carolyn & Evan

Miller

Beautiful Snout

Clouded Buff

Four-dotted Footman

Green Silver-lines

Square Spot

My 200th

For a while I have been stuck on 199 species recorded at my house in Cross Inn.
Last night, as I was getting ready for bed I was delighted to find the 200th resting on the mirror. My first Angle Shades.

Day fliers and trap raider

Most early evenings over the last ten days or so I have noted up to 6 Grass Rivulets flying in my small field at Troedrhiw Seiri, Bontgoch, and this morning I was surprised to see a Small Yellow Underwing nectaring on daisies on my 'lawn'. I also had a second garden visit of the year by a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.
Having recorded a mere 20 moths (10 species) for the Moth-a -Thon, last night was a different story. For a start there was a Great Tit keen to get out of the trap having first killed half a dozen moths. Fortunately most of the 100 moths (30 species) were unharmed and seemingly oblivious to the mayhem.

Grass Rivulet

Small Yellow Underwing

Knot Grass & Brimstone

Poplar Grey

Rhos Glendenys 27/5

Had a walk round to see what's what.

Orchards are out and the reserve, unsurprisingly, is the driest I've seen it. You can get most of the way round without wellies!

Moth wise only saw Silver-ground Carpet and this unident below...

Lesser Swallow Prominent

I've had a few of these recently.

If my ID is correct the Swallow Prominent has a white wavy line across the dark bit (sorry for the rather imprecise terminology!)

Wood Carpet - Llawrcwrt

It took me some time to work out what this might be. Tony confirmed it and tells me that I recorded one here in 1988. Apart from this, it was the usual suspects.33 moths and 12 species.

Stranger in the box....Broad barred White

Moaning again about the wind and cold in my tiny enclosed but exposed garden here in Tanygroes, (just above Aberporth) I was surprised to find this one under the rim of the actinic Robinson.  Not that there wasn't room in the trap beside the other 6 moths.

Tony's excellent macro records document (a delight to use, so quick!) shows an interesting pattern for this smart little moth.   Caught in numbers pre 2000 by the Rothampstead death trap at MOD Aberporth there were seemingly enough spared to maintain a colony after the cessation of trapping and one found its way over to my place.  Nationally there has been a 93% decline in abundance.

Apologies for sub standard pic but it was revving up to go!

Moth-a-thon - One

Our first attempt at a county wide moth event.
Aline initiated this for Denmark Farm Conservation Centre as during these virus restricted times income has come to an end from their courses and environmentally friendly Eco lodges.
Followers and supporters are making donations and all contributions to the cause will be very welcome.
You can if you wish Donate here
Our Talybont garden produced 19 macro species and 2 micro species as follows;
Cinnabar, Peppered Moth, Heart and Dart, Trebles Lines, Broken-barred Carpet, Shark, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Poplar Hawkmoth, Brown Silver-line, Brown Rustic, Elephant Hawkmoth, Marbled Minor (agg), Small Square-spot, Flame Shoulder, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Small Elephant Hawkmoth, White Ermine, Brimstone, Buff-tip and the last two Light Brown Apple Moth and White-shouldered House Moth.
We hope to publish full results in about a weeks time when all results are in. Many thanks to all taking part and especially those donating.
Ina and Tony

Broken-barred Carpet

Add caption

Shark - head

Shark

Small Elephant and Elephant Hawkmoth

Small Square-spot

White Ermine

Cross Inn, Llanon

Here is my catch for last night.
White Ermine 2, Flame Shoulder 1, Silver Ground Carpet moth 1, Heart and Dart 1, Brown Rustic 1, Small Square Spot 1, Scoparia ambigualis (I think!) 1

Barred Hook-tip

We put our actinic trap in a neighbour's arboretum adjacent to a beech woodland last night and were delighted to catch this Barred Hook-tip after an absence of several years.  We had a total of 73 moths of 23 macro species of which 37 were Treble Lines.

Carolyn & Evan

Barred Hook-tip

Barred Umber

Broken-barred Carpet

Cream Wave (fw 15mm)

Llanarth garden

A very busy night included the following :-

Alder Kitten

Oblique Carpet

Pale Mottled Willow

Purple Clay

White-spotted Pug

Cauchas fibulella in Llangeitho

Well, I hope that's what it is.

Prompted by a post on the Carmarthenshire moth blog, I've been keeping an eye on the Veronica chamaedrys in the wilder parts here and was rewarded today with sight of a couple of these.

Talybont garden moths

Things seem to be improving slowly in our neck of the woods, 20 species last night including 2 micros! the inevitable LBAM and Argyresthia trifasciata. New for us this year were Setaceous Hebrew Character, Elephant Hawk-moth, Lychnis and Brown Rustic.
Tony & Ina

Ochreous Pug

We looked again at the photos of two of our medium-sized pugs from yesterday's catch this morning.  The Ochreous Pug, a first for us, was kindly identified by our county moth recorders.  The second one, the Dwarf Pug, has been caught infrequently by us locally.

Carolyn & Evan

    

Ochreous Pug (20mm)

Dwarf Pug (20mm)

Macro moths documents

Up to date versions of "The Macro Moths of Ceredigion" and "Macro Moths Species List" are available for download under the "Documents" tag.
Tony

Melanistic Square Spot

A warm night produced well over 100 moths of 41 macro species from our usual two traps, the most numerous of which were White Ermine, Pale Tussock and Treble Lines.  The high spot for us was this unusual melanistic Square Spot.

Carolyn & Evan

Square Spot (melanistic)

Treble Lines

Alder Moth

Lobster Moth

Oak Hook-tip