A Warm Humid Night

A warm humid night produced 17 species from our garden trap, the most abundant of which was Red-green Carpet.  Here are four of the more attractive ones.

Carolyn & Evan

Gold Spot

Black Rustic

Brindled Green

Frosted Orange

Interesting micros

As reported by Liz, a nice damp night near Gwbert produced some interesting moths. As well as the Black-banded from one of the traps, Ina potted a second from the window of the bar of the hotel where we were staying. Back in the 1980s Adrian Fowles reported that a colony of Black-banded was discovered in this area in 1962.

We also caught two micros, which may be new records for the county. These have yet to be confirmed. The first was Rhigognostis incarnatella, which was discovered in Pembrokeshire within the last ten years, previously being reported from Scotland, Northumberland and parts of Ireland. How did it get to Wales? Could it have arrived by ferry to Fishguard?

Rhigognostis incarnatella

 The other was Epermenia falciformis which is common in south and eastern England and local in northern England. There are some records from Wales but none we know of from Ceredigion. Unfortunately not a great specimen and photographed through glass.

Black-banded Moth Distribution

Liz,

A good catch and as you say a scarce species.

Evan

Black banded moth

A scarce coastal species caught last night in spite of the drizzle/light rain and murky conditions in the south of the County.

snaps and traps

questions, questions, questions... if it were possible to benefit from any expertise or experience on the following, that would be much appreciated:

firstly, i'm planning a portable moth trap. (so far i've only ever used a 15w trap, run off the mains.) i'm not sure what wattage of light to go for. i had been considering the circular 22w bulbs but now wonder if that would be a mistake in terms of the battery ampere-hours required. how successful are 8w bulbs at bringing in the moths? (15w bulbs seem problematic as an 18 inch long bulb doesn't seem easy to carry around, or to mount on a portable trap.) if i used a 12 inch 8w bulb, what sort works best, and is it best to mount it vertically or horizontally? has anyone ever used a suspended trap with the light, and trap entrance, underneath? on occasions it would be useful to be able to run the trap for more than one night without having opportunity to recharge the battery in between. is that hoping too much, in terms of a practical power supply? does anyone have experience of how different types of batteries perform/last? are there any easily portable lead acid batteries? are there drawbacks to li-ion batteries in addition to the cost?

secondly, i'm wondering about buying a better camera. i've been using a compact point and shoot camera but the autofocus technology doesn't allow the lens to get close to the moth and it's difficult to avoid chromatic aberration around any edges. for micros, it's all but useless (and it's not great with macros, particularly if the light is anything less than bright). i don't have much technical knowledge of photography. does anyone know if any of the newer compact cameras are up to the job?

Unusual micro

I sent this little fellow off to Peter Hall who has returned with the id based on genitalia :Phyllonorychter ulmifoliella, a male leaf miner whose wing length was all of 3.5mm.  Amazing to be able to handle something so small especially as I had decapitated it in the photo shoot and the only complete part was in fact its abdomen.
According to the map on the website for leaf miners there is only one place where it has been found in Cere, yes you guessed: top left hand corner!
This was caught in my garden on 1st Sept so obviously there is a lot of recording to be done in the micro division.

Mullein Wave

A better night for the garden trap last night, one or two autumn moths appearing now.
The highlight being a Mullein Wave, not many records for this moth in the county amd so far as we can see, none last year.
The Copper Underwing photo does not look quite so obvious a line on the picture as it did in reality, not very easy taking pics whilst holding the moth I have discovered, even with a time delay on the camera.

Mullein Wave

Autumnal Rustic

Eudonia truncicolella

Brindled Green



Copper Underwing

Burnished Brass