Westcott, Bucks

The first half of February turned out to be a fairly dismal fortnight.  Not only was the weather dull, grey and cold but few moths ventured forth even when the temperature was above freezing.  The lights here were run every night, even if only for a few hours after dark, but I've very little to show for it.  The 4th provided the best result, when Pale Brindled Beauty (2), Spring Usher (1) & Early Moth (2) turned up, but other than that it has just been further occasional appearances by Pale Brindled Beauty.  Not even a Dotted Border yet.  It does look as though we might be due a slightly warmer spell from next week onwards so hopefully that will prompt a bit more activity.  There have been only two adult species to add to the year list since the beginning of the month and they were both found indoors:

     (4th)    Tineola bisselliella 

     (14th)  Mompha jurassicella

Tineola bisselliella, Westcott 4th February

There have been two or three more examples of bisselliella found resting on interior walls since that date so our carpets are obviously being put to good use...  The only other thing worth a mention from this period was a 15mm larva of what I think is Scarce Footman which was found crawling up the exterior conservatory wall towards the light: 

 

Scarce Footman larva, Westcott 5th February

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

 

Westcott, Bucks

I've run the light every night since mid-month because even on the frostier ones the temperature remained above freezing for a few hours after dusk which meant there was potential for moth activity.  There were blanks on the 17th, 20th, 23rd, 25th, 27th & 30th but otherwise something did turn up each time, although there was very little diversity and Pale Brindled Beauty accounted for the majority of the visitors seen.  Early Moth first appeared on the 18th and three more turned up prior to Storm Eowyn but then there were no more until last night when the catch comprised Acleris schalleriana (1), Early Moth (2) & Spring Usher (3).  Newcomers during this two-week period are listed below, taking the adult moth count to nine species for the year to date:  

     (18th)  Early Moth

     (24th)  Acleris hastiana

     (29th)  Acleris schalleriana

     (31st)  Spring Usher

Acleris hastiana, Westcott 24th January

Spring Usher, Westcott 31st January

Early Moth, Westcott 18th January

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

2024 Winners and losers

 Having got my 2024 records sorted and feeling that it was a good year for the number of species recorded (especially micros) overall numbers were down. I decided to look more closely at what had happened with the more common species.

I looked at the 52 commonest species in the garden. These are ones that I have recorded more than 400 individuals of since I started trapping regularly in 2016. I compared the numbers caught in 2024 with the average caught in 2016-2023.

In 2024 14 species did better than expected. The best 5 were Dingy Footman, Riband Wave, Green Carpet, Straw Dot and Buff Footman. 

8 species were much the same as in previous years.

30 species appeared in much lower number with the poorest being Large Nutmeg, Flame, Middle-barred Minor, Lunar Underwing and Heart and Dart.

Generally it was the heavier, more robust moths that performed badly and the lighter ones that did well.

Other less common moths that did well in 2024 were Pine Hawk-moth, Early Moth, Delicate, Cypress Carpet and Magpie moth. Two species showing a notable decline here in the last few years are Small Angle Shades and Satellite.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Mine ID

 I found this vacated mine yesterday on a bramble leaf. It doesn't seem to match any of the moth mines listed for Rubus sp. in British Leafminers, so I suspect it is either a fly mine (vaguely similar to Agromyza filipendulae?), or perhaps a polyphagous moth species not listed under rubus. Or something else!
Thanks

PhilT

Westcott, Bucks

The garden at Westcott finally got off the mark for 2025 on 5th January.  This has been a very quiet period thanks to the lengthy cold snap and the lights remained off for the majority of it.  An attempt on the 1st (more out of tradition than expecting anything to arrive!) produced nothing at all, the next attempt on the 5th brought in two moths, while a slight improvement in the weather from the 13th onwards did attract a bit more activity on that and the following two nights with the following new for the year list:

     (5th)  Agonopterix heracliana, Winter Moth

     (13th)  Pale Brindled Beauty

     (14th)  Ypsolopha ustella, Mottled Umber

Hopefully Early Moth, whose flight period is limited mainly to January and February, will put in an appearance very soon now.  It is a regular here and its first record is usually during the first two weeks of the new year, so I'm surprised not to have seen one already.  

Ypsolopha ustella, Westcott 14th January

At the moment Peter Hall is kindly working his way through a number of dissections for me from 2024 and there have been a couple of 'newsworthy' items already.  Perhaps the most significant is Phyllocnistis asiatica which was discovered as new to the UK in 2018 (more info can be found on the Atlas page for this species).  It is identical in appearance to Phyllonorycter saligna and, like Spiny Hook-tip, is another moth which seems to have been "hiding in plain sight".  To date it appears that only females of asiatica and saligna can safely be determined to species via dissection and four examples of asiatica have been confirmed from Westcott so far (23rd June, 29th July, 30th July x 2) with more still to be checked.  That saligna hasn't (yet) been found is perhaps equally as interesting!  

Phyllocnistis asiatica, Westcott 23rd June 2024

The other notable discovery was confirmation that I had an example of Saltern Ear to light at Westcott on 24th July 2024.  I thought at the time that it might be that species and the picture can be seen here on the blog.  This was a first record for Bucks.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks  

Latest moth reports from Les Finch and Martin Finch

Three new reports from Les Finch and Martin Finch are now available from the Berkshire Moth Group website, adding to the long-running and absolutely fascinating series that they have been producing since 2005. The overall summary for their home trapping is that there were fewer individuals in 2024 compared to 2023, but more species, and both individual and species totals in 2024 were higher than the longer-term average for 2014-2023:

The trend for early emergences of some of the spring species has continued:

Les and Martin provide lots more additional information and analysis in their full reports, and I recommend exploring them in detail!

Stowe 2024

 

Having finished my analysis of last year, I find that the total trap count for 2024 was similar to 2022, but down by around 25% compared with 2023. The number of species recorded though was only down by 5%, with the macro species count being the highest ever, offset by a lot fewer micros. Despite this, of the 36 new species recorded in the year, 26 were micros and only 10 macros.

	2022	2023	2024
Nights	174	162	174
Total count	11725	14867	11053
Species count	435	481	457
Macros	256	270	295
Micros	179	211	155

 

Of the new macro species, Reddish Light Arches seems a long way from any chalk, and there appear to be no other records in this part of Bucks. Clouded Magpie too was a long way from its regular sites. This year I tried a pheromone lure for Gypsy Moth, (which proved very effective at attracting Black Arches), but I needn’t have bothered as several turned up in the light trap, filling a distribution gap in NW Bucks.
Among the micros were Caloptilia honoratella, Elachista luticomella, and Cnephasia pasiuana, IDs thanks to Peter, plus Lyonetia prunifoliella, all of which appear to have very few records in the region.

                                                             

                                                                Caloptilia honoratella

                                        

                                                                    Lyonetia prunifoliella

Phil T