The move to Facebook

As mentioned several days ago, we are now going to suspend this blog and move to Facebook.  We realise that this won't please everyone and we may lose one or two contributors as a result, but with more and more people experiencing problems with Blogger we felt the need to move to a more stable platform and there really seems to be very little choice out there.

For those of you who record moths within our three counties and wish to join us on Facebook, please request membership at the link here.  While basic details are now in the public domain, this remains a private Facebook group so messages are only visible to those who join.  We hope that those of you who regularly contribute to the blog, or who have done so in the past, will join us there and make it as successful as this blog has been.

For anyone who wishes to refer back to it, the blog itself will remain visible but inactive.

Westcott, Bucks

The actinic lights here at Westcott had mixed fortunes during the first half of March, with some blank nights at the beginning (1st, 2nd) as well as at the end (12th, 13th, 15th) but a reasonable amount of moth activity for the remainder.  New for the 2025 garden year-list were:

     (5th)  Lead-coloured Drab

     (6th)  Agonopterix ocellana

     (7th)  Emmelina monodactyla

     (8th)  Agonopterix alstromeriana, Acleris ferrugana/notana, Twin-spotted Quaker

     (9th)  Satellite

     (10th)  Small Quaker

Nothing unusual there.  The adult species count has now past 30 and, apart from a couple of recent seasons when we've had unusually warm weather at this time of year, that point is usually reached sometime during the first half of March so progress seems to be fairly close to where it should be.

 

Lead-coloured Drab, Westcott 5th March

Agonopterix ocellana, Westcott 6th March

 

Likely Acleris ferrugana, Westcott 8th March

Satellite, Westcott 9th March

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Two queries

 Hi,

I'm hoping I've got in under the wire before this excellent facility moves to Facebook.

Here are two species that turned up a couple of nights ago. I'm suggesting that the first two images are of  Agonopterix alstromeriana, and that the second pair are one of the Acleris species - maybe shalleriana.

Can someone confirm or put me straight? Many thanks,

David

Important: the blog's future

As more and more people seem to be having trouble contributing to (or in quite a few cases now, even simply viewing) this blog, we feel that after nearly 12 years of successful operation it has run its course.

However, having somewhere up-to-the-minute for local moth recorders to circulate what they've been seeing and to ask questions is still just as important as it ever was, perhaps even more so now with increasing numbers of people turning to this fascinating subject, so we've decided to change platforms rather than wind things up altogether.  After some research, and much as some of us personally dislike using it, the only suitable place would seem to be Facebook, so this blog will migrate to a newly-established private Facebook group in the next week or two.  Watch this space...

Dotted Chestnut

 Despite being "widespread across the region", this was the first here for four years. A very smart moth!

Micro query

 This was trapped on Otmoor this morning. Wondering if it might be a form of Acleris hastiana?? Thanks, Linda.

Finemere Wood, Bucks

With permission from BBOWT, one of my half a dozen sites for regular "away" trapping this year is, once again, Finemere Wood in Bucks.  The wood is quite local to me and one of several of the Trust's reserves which are under considerable pressure from HS2 construction work.

Mixed deciduous woodland is always the place to be for large numbers of moths at this time of year and a couple of MV traps run there for three hours after dark last night (Friday 7th) brought in a reasonable crop of nearly 300 moths from 20 species.  That's not a bad total but I'd expect a much higher count later in the month when Small Quaker should be closer to its peak.  Last night the highest tally was provided by Small Brindled Beauty (46), followed by Yellow Horned (39), Small Quaker (36) & Common Quaker (35).  It was unusual to get a double-digit count of Shoulder Stripe (20 seen), while early examples of Engrailed, Red Chestnut, Lead-coloured Drab & Twin-spotted Quaker were also welcome.  I was surprised to see only two Pale Brindled Beauty, one Spring Usher and no Early Moth at all, so the recent cold weather must have all but finished them off for the season - and unfortunately we've got more frosts to come next week too. 

Shoulder Stripe, Finemere Wood 7th March

Engrailed, Finemere Wood 7th March

Yellow Horned, Finemere Wood 7th March

Lead-coloured Drab, Finemere Wood 7th March

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Westcott, Bucks

We're back to chilly nights again now but at least that slightly warmer spell during the second half of February brought out a few seasonal moths to get the year-list moving:

     (19th)  Hebrew Character, Dark Chestnut

     (20th)  Acleris cristana, March Moth, Oak Beauty, Common Quaker

     (21st)  Dotted Border

     (22nd)  Small Brindled Beauty, Clouded Drab

     (24th)  Mompha epilobiella, Acleris logiana

     (26th)  Chestnut

Most of those species were to be expected although Small Brindled Beauty has only been regarded as an annual here for the last six years, before that it was just a very occasional visitor.  The birch-feeding Acleris logiana was a nice record of a fairly recent arrival in our area, having only appeared in the garden during two previous seasons (2017 and 2020).  I'm happy with the ID for this one but there is a possible confusion species in Acleris kochiella (associated with elms) which is far more common locally. 

Acleris cristana, Westcott 20th February

Acleris logiana, Westcott 24th February

Small Brindled Beauty, Westcott 22nd February

Oak Beauty, Westcott 20th February

Dave Wilton, Westcott, Bucks

Mompha jurassicella

 Found indoors yesterday, I am pretty confident that this is Mompha jurassicella, rather than bradleyi/divisella. It is dull overall; the basal area is dull yellowish brown not white or whitish, and the pale cross-band at 3/4 is faint and broken in the middle. And, FWIW, I had one here, gen det by Peter, on 22 Feb last year.
I have retained it just in case, but I'm rather assuming that gen det won't be needed.

Thanks

Phil 

The first of many?

Last year we had a total of around 200 Bee Moths in the house, (to my wife's dismay!). Perhaps this is the vanguard of another invasion!?