Ynys-hir Micros

Four species of micro last night including 60 Tortricodes alternella, (a conservative estimate!).
Photos of the other three below.

Ypsolopha ustella

Agonopterix ocellana

Agonopterix arenella

Mothy Mutterings

The latest from BC's Moths Count Newsletter is out.
Some interesting notes on the progress of a national recording scheme for micro moths, still a long way to go though.
Also the effects of the wet winter on lepidoptera.

http://mothscount.org/downloads/109/mothy_mutterings.html

March Moth

On the first of this month we were rewarded with our first March Moth of the year in our woodland trap.  Our catch also included Pale Brindled Beauty, Spring Usher, Dotted Border, Oak Beauty, Chestnut, Satellite and Tortricoides alternella- 36 moths in total.

Carolyn & Evan

March Moth

Dotted Border

Ynys-hir 25th Feb

Another mothing session at Ynys-hir last night. 
We caught 9 species, the most numerous of which was Tortricodes alternella, 39 in and around the trap.

Satellite

The others were Dotted Border, Spring Usher, Pale Brindled Beauty (both forms), Chestnut, Hebrew Character, Mottled Grey, Satellite and Early Grey.

Early Grey

February Mothing

We set two traps two nights ago, one in our garden and the other in nearby mixed woodland with a total of eight moths - a fresh Mottled Grey, Oak Beauty, Spring Usher and 5 Chestnuts.

Carolyn & Evan

Mottled Grey

Oak Beauty

Spring Usher

Spring Usher and T.alternella

Much colder this week for mothing at Ynys-hir, but we thought this could be the best night of the week.
A much lower count than last week too, only 15 Spring Usher, 1 Dotted Border and 1 Tortricodes alternella.

Spring Usher

T.alternella

Acleris cristana

Despite the high winds last night we had a good catch from 2 heath traps in some oak woodland at Ynys-hir. There were 48 Spring usher, 8 Pale brindled beauty, 5 Dotted border, 4 Chestnut, 2 Mottled umber, 12 Tortricodes alternella, and this Acleris cristana.

 

According to the field guides this is an extremely variable moth with over 130 known forms and a rarely recorded moth in the county.