Wednesday 12 September 2018

Rain Helps

Exactly fifty moth species came to the actinic trap in the garden last night despite drizzle (as well as some heavier rain) throughout the hours of darkness.  Precipitation likely causes interference to the radar of their bat predators, permitting more successful activity by insects at night especially when the rain itself isn't too heavy.  There was nothing surprising amongst the collection of moths, although 16 micro species in the garden at this time of the year seemed quite good.  One of the unidentifiable lesser-spotted Yponomeuta species has started to re-appear over the past week and I had another last night.  Anania coronata is a regular in the garden and there were several records here between 28th June and 17th July then none at all until last night, suggesting this is actually a second brood.  This was a very restless specimen and unfortunately managed to damage itself in the pot.

Yponomeuta sp., Westcott 11th September

Anania coronata, Westcott 11th September

Amongst the macros, Pine Carpet and Brindled Green were new for the year list but the remainder were all pretty much expected species for the time of year.  A male Pale Eggar was the eighth for the garden this season, making this its best ever here, while another Old Lady was nice to see, the fifth in the trap so far in 2018.

Pine Carpet, Westcott 11th September

Heart and Dart is tailing off now with just the one seen last night, but then again I wasn't overly swamped either by the three species which are currently providing the largest numbers each night, their totals being Large Yellow Underwing (38), Setaceous Hebrew Character (28) and Square-spot Rustic (21).  Lunar Underwing hasn't started here yet but I should soon be inundated with them because it is usually up amongst the top three most numerous garden moths of the year and was the top dog in 2005 and 2014 (in the latter year I had 3,570 of them between 11th September and 25th October although that was an exceptional year for the species).

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
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4 comments:

  1. Andy Newbold13 September 2018 at 11:32

    Although the drizzle/rain didn't start here until about 5am it was still a much improved catch compared to recent nights. I put it down to the wind having dropped and an exceptionally mild early part of the night. Quite a few of the Autumn moths put in their first appearance here - Lunar Underwing (2), Beaded Chestnut (1), Black Rustic (2), Deep-brown Dart (1). Brown-spot Pinion (1). Also a lovely fresh Buff Ermine and my second ever Treble-bar (still waiting for a Lesser Treble-bar!). 76 Large Yellow Underwings were the most I've had this year.

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  2. Mark Griffiths13 September 2018 at 18:42

    I realised I've not seen any Small Square-Spots this year - how odd - it's usually common.

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    1. Dave Wilton13 September 2018 at 19:20

      Yes, Small Square-spot is an interesting one. I had eleven in the garden over two weeks in June (10th to 26th) which I presume was the first brood, then another eighteen between 25th July and 9th September which I presume was the second brood. Their numbers seem to fluctuate wildly, illustrated by my garden totals just going back seven years: 2011 (1), 2012 (3), 2013 (117), 2014 (263), 2015 (391), 2016 (864) & 2017 (344).

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    2. Mark Griffiths15 September 2018 at 09:56

      oh that is interesting - as I started trapping in 2013 my catches would correspond to the more abundant years. Let's hope this is a cycle rather than something more ominous. Looks very much a generalist so it's curious this should happen..maybe parasitoids?

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