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
                                                               

Westcott, Bucks

Happy New Year one and all.  May there be plenty of moths in all of our traps this coming season, although the current weather forecast suggests that those of us who keep recording throughout the winter may have to wait a few days before getting off the mark for 2025!

The lights were on each night throughout the second half of December here in the garden at Westcott but on four occasions they produced a nil return (18th, 19th & 31st thanks to very strong winds but, unexpectedly, also on 30th when conditions were actually quite benign).  Otherwise something turned up each time and species seen over this period comprised Ypsolopha ustella, Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Emmelina monodactyla, Acleris schalleriana, Cypress Carpet, Winter Moth, Pale Brindled Beauty, Mottled Umber & Dark Chestnut, while found indoors were Tineola bisselliella & Mompha epilobiella.  

Ypsolopha ustella, Westcott 29th December

This two-week period also saw a handful of other insects brought to the overnight lights, including water beetles Colymbetes fuscus (24th) & Dytiscus marginalis (23rd & 24th), predatory shield-bug Troilus luridus (25th) and a seemingly rather early example of ichneumon wasp Ophion variegatus (30th).  I get lots of that particular Ophion here, but usually not until mid-January onwards.

That brings activity in the garden to a close for 2024.  I don't yet know exactly how many moth species appeared here during the year but the macro count will be somewhere just above 330 and I believe the overall total will be in the high 600s.  It is possible that I may just reach the 700+ level achieved in each of the previous three seasons but somehow I doubt it.  I do know how many individual moths turned up though, and as expected that total shows a marked reduction over previous years.  26,621 was the total for 2024, which is the lowest count for twelve years and didn't reach half of the number seen here in 2019 for a roughly similar amount of trapping effort.  The steady increase in the number of trapping nights which can be seen in the table below is certainly not accounted for by me being absent from the garden any less often (we've been away for three or four weeks altogether in most of the years listed).  It appears to be down to our ever-warmer winters providing suitable conditions more and more frequently in January, February and December when moths could be flying, which probably isn't a good thing at all.     

Year	Nights trap was run	Micro species	Macro species	Overall moth count
2015	298	309	324	33,941
2016	289	316	315	26,697
2017	279	326	336	28,189
2018	286	346	338	42,063
2019	323	344	355	54,400
2020	320	345	330	36,784
2021	335	380	332	29,330
2022	326	383	360	38,146
2023	320	362	350	34,986
2024	340			26,621

Macro-moth additions to the site list comprised Chamomile Shark & Plumed Fan-foot as well as Spiny Hook-tip (genitalia now checked thanks to Peter Hall).  A definitive count for new micros is still awaited but certainly includes Stigmella catharticella, Crassa tinctella & Diurnea lipsiella.  The final number of additions is expected to be the lowest here in 20 years of trapping this site but realistically I should be pleased still to be getting any at all after that length of time. 

Chamomile Shark, Westcott 14th April

Plumed Fan-foot, Westcott 10th August

Spiny Hook-tip, Westcott 1st November (gen det)

How was your experience of 2024?  Did you also find that there was a marked reduction in numbers compared to earlier years?

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Agonopterix umbellana confirmed

I posted a picture of this moth back on 2nd December.

It has now been checked by Peter and confirmed as Agonopterix umbellana. Not a county first, but still quite rare for our region. Steve Trigg, Cookham

Festive lamp conversion

Merry Christmas all!  I am hoping to attract three Wise Moths although it looks as though they will have to have travelled from very afar, being a type of Ghost Moth endemic to New Zealand.  All warmest and here's hoping for more everyday but still interesting arrivals in the New Year!  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Update on Boxing Day: Well, Three Wise Moths duly appeared on Christmas Night; not Wiseana but a nice trio: Winter moth, Mottled Umber and the ever-increasing Cypress Carpet. Encouraged, I put out the trap again last night. Nobody came.  MW

Moth Dissection website

 It is that time of year again. We are still a little short of funds to keep the website up and running into 2025, so this is an appeal to anyone that sends me moths to dissect and hasn't done so, or anyone else who uses the fantastic website at all, to consider making a donation to help its upkeep.  https://mothdissection.co.uk/donate.php

Thanks

Peter