Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Cabbage moth spine on tibia

See comment below previous pic

i d help please

Is this a Cabbage moth?  Caught last night in Prof Mike Hayward's lovely garden inland of Clarach.
A bright, clear and starry night last night brought a great change in the moth catch.
The Talybont garden trap and surrounding area only yielded a dozen species.
Amongst them was a late male Clay pictured below showing his black stripe or in this case a Y.




Agonopterix arenella, a species that feeds on Hemlock, was one of two micros.  The other was a Light Brown Apple moth, which we know feeds on Tony's apples!!



Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Id help required

We caught this moth on Cors Fochno this morning and were unable to identify it, can anyone help.
?

Cors Fochno

Checking the moth traps on Cors Fochno this morning was not a particularly pleasant experience with the heavy drizzle and swarms of biting midges, but we had some interesting moths.
Heath rustic
 This locally occurring moth feeds on heather which is abundant on the bog. The first county record was in 1970 and it was commonly found on Cors Caron, but not Cors Fochno at that time.

Round-winged muslin
 This is another local species feeding on lichens and mosses. It was reported as abundant on Cors Fochno in 1949 and 1950 but only a singleton was recorded in 1967. According to Adrian Fowles work, there were no more records on the bog, despite regular trapping (upto 1980's).

Broad-bordered yellow underwing
  This apparently common moth is not recorded very often in the county. According to Fowles it was widely reported in the 1950's and 1960's, but only in small numbers. In the 1970's and early 80's there was only one record.

Barred hook-tip
  This is a rare moth for the county but the third we have seen this year from 3 different locations. It is reported to feed on Beech but we don't know where the nearest beech is to the bog.

These were in with 162 moths of 34 species from 2 15W actinic traps. There were lots of Flame shoulder, Heath rustic, Chevron, Canary-shouldered thorn and Large yellow underwing. Also Sallow, Drinker, Dark arches, Dingy footman, Pinion-streaked snout, Marsh oblique-barred, Ear sp, Setaceous Hebrew character, Lesser yellow underwing, Square spot rustic, July highflyer, Rosy footman, Gold spot, Autumnal rustic, and Dark sword-grass.

Monday, 2 September 2013

Common/Dark Marbled Carpet

Right, you find a Common/Dark Marbled Carpet.



What is the first thing you do?
You turn it over to look for the under wing pattern, which I did.





And this is what I got....so what is it?

Sunday, 1 September 2013