Talybont Garden in December

 We had a mild and not so damp night last night so had a go with the trap in the garden.

The result was 3 moths of 3 species, not too bad for here in December.

Ina and Tony

December Moth

Feathered Thorn

Scarce Umber

Scarce Umber

 Only two December Moths in the garden trap last night but the woodland trap produced four moths of three species - including our first Scarce Umber this year together with a Mottled Umber & two November Moth agg.

Carolyn & Evan

Scarce Umber

Mottled Umber

Fewer Garden Moths

 Despite being a mild night only 3 moths in the garden last night, down from 10 last week.  Still not bad for the time of year as we have usually given up on the garden by this time of year.  Woodland is now the only place to go if we want to see more species.

Ina & Tony

Red-green Carpet

December Moth

Feathered Thorn

A few of the usual suspects

 We (Ina) put the trap (60W Actinic Robinson) out in the garden. We caught only 10 moths of 6 species, 9 of  them were on or around the trap, only the Angle Shades went into the trap.

Tony & Ina

Angle Shades

December Moth

Feathered Thorn

Mottled Umber

Red-green Carpet

November Moth

On the Cilgerran boardwalk

 I only have Manley and he led me to Muslin moth. Anyone concur? 

Llawrcwrt - Dark Chestnut

 

 

 

 

Not much in the trap a couple of days ago. In fact only a couple of moths. One flew off leaving what I take to be a quite brightly marked Dark Chestnut. I tried Obsidentify as recommended by Philip, and it thought so too.
 

Flounced Chestnut

 Winter is approaching.  We caught our first November aggregate Moths, Mottled Umber and Flounced Chestnut for this year, amongst a total of 13 macro species, last night.  The most numerous was the Chestnut in double figures and included our very first Pine Carpet.

Carolyn & Evan

Flounced Chestnut

Mottled Umber

November Moth agg.

Pine Carpet

Marbled White Spot

 Just 15 moths of six species in my LED trap last night, but a surprise was this Marbled White Spot. Apologies for the poor (phone) photograph.

I see Carolyn and Evan recorded one in mid-September last year.

Oak Nycteoline

 We caught an Oak Nycteoline again this year from our neighbour's woodland. A total of ten macro species included Merveille du Jour, Lunar Underwing, Chestnut, Red and Yellow-line Quakers and a plethora of Red-green Carpet.

Carolyn & Evan

Oak Nycteoline

Merveille du Jour

Lunar Underwing

                                                                                

ObsIdentify

Last night I had 18 moths of 8 species.

I recently downloaded the free app ObsIdentify and thought I would give it a trial.

Having taken photos of all 8 species I then put them through the app and it identified them all accurately. 1 of them it wasn’t 100% sure of (Spruce Carpet) but it did appear at the top of the list of likely candidates.

ObsIdentify will never replace experience and field guides but I must say how impressed I was with it. For anybody who needs a helping hand to guide them towards the correct page in their moth book it is well worth installing.

I’ve also used it to help identify beetles.

Death's-head Hawk-moth

 The 14th Ceredigion record for this rare visitor to the county was found near Talsarn in a water container. It was rescued, dried out and has since recovered. The lady who found it described it as "walking up my sleeve, squeaking as it went". We have had 3 records since 2015, with none from 1983 to 2015.

Tony

Another Clifden Nonpareil !

 This moth was found in Devil's Bridge by Christopher Jones, where he photographed it at rest on a window frame. This is only the fifth record for the county and the first for that area. The first record was only 2 years ago (see post for 11 Sep below).

Tony

Small Dusty Wave

 I thought I had a pug at the window this morning, but on closer inspection it appears to be a rather faded Small Dusty Wave.

Clifden Nonpareil

 We were delighted to find this Clifden Nonpareil in our garden trap this morning having caught our first at the same time two years previously.

Carolyn & Evan

Nanteos / Aberystwyth

I trapped (in the rain) at Old Warren Hill (Nanteos) last night. Only one thorn (August; I had hoped for more), but I managed the Magpie double (one each of Clouded and "normal"), several Feathered Gothic and singles of Autumnal Rustic, Clay triple-lines, July Highflyer and a possible Ash-pug.

Ash pug?

Autumnal Rustic

Micros included Hypatima rhomboidella, Ypsolopha parenthesella, Agonopterix arenella and a good selection of Acleris sp.:

Acleris sparsana

Acleris emargana

Acleris rhombana ?

In my garden trap the previous night the highlights were Devon Carpet, Cedestis subfasciella, Bucculatrix ulmella, and Etainia decentella:

Devon Carpet

Etainia (or Ectoedemia?) decentella

Llawrcwrt - Elephant Hawk-moth Larva

My wife  found this transiting a stretch of wall between overhanging Willow-herb this morning. Nice to find something as there was very little in the trap.
 

 

 

 

Mouse Moth

 There are only 40 records for this moth in Ceredigion, only 2 since 1992, one in 2010 and the the other in 2014 from Ynys-las and New Quay respectively. This species is not reported as being in decline so it is a bit of a puzzle as to why we are not catching more of them. This one was caught inland from Aberporth last weekend by Ruth Harding. 

Tony

Two new moths for Llangeitho

 My last two trapping sessions, 30 August and 2 September, produced two new species for my site (subject to my identifications being correct): two rather faded Yellow-barred Brindles and a somewhat worn Tawny Speckled Pug:

Yellow-barred Brindle

Another Yellow-barred Brindle

Tawny Speckled Pug

Buff Tip caterpillars

Below, is my original post but these have now been identified as Buff Tip caterpillars, not Scarlet Tiger, so I’ve changed the title.

I hope somebody is better at caterpillars than I am. I’m thinking that these are Scarlet Tiger caterpillars destroying a young birch tree in my garden. 

Vapourer

 Good range of late summer / early autumn! moths in my trap at Bontgoch the last two nights including two surprise firsts for me - Vapourer and Striped Twin-spot Carpet.

Vapourer

Striped Twin-spot Carpet

Autumnal Rustic

 The white socks are such a defining feature of this August Thorn I am mystified as to why they are not mentioned in the 2nd ed of Waring and Townsend.  Sunrise at Coed Maidie B, a woodland that produces good numbers of the large showy Emeralds and 7 sp of Thorns. 

Cross Inn

 2 more new ones for me last night were this Oblique Carpet and Feathered Gothic.

Black Arches

 New to me at Cross Inn is this Black Arches.

Llawrcwrt - Oak Hook-tip

 This was the pick of the bunch in the trap this morning. I don't recall seeing one before and I think it may be a first for the site.