More migrants at Westcott, Bucks

Over the past seven nights I've had regular visits to the garden trap by Dark Sword-grass, taking my score for the year to 20 individuals, so immigration seems to be on-going.  Plutella xylostella (Diamond-back Moth), Udea ferrugalis (Rusty-dot Pearl) and Nomophila noctuella (Rush Veneer) also put in appearances during the week.



Dark Sword-grass

The high winds here last night (2nd November), with gusts of up to 50mph, caused me to run the actinic light inside the conservatory again and eight brave moths came to the windows.  Amongst them was the Chloroclysta species illustrated below.  I'm happy that it is just a 'green' Red-green Carpet, but does anyone have any different views?


Red-green Carpet

Back on 29th October, while surveying for Brown Hairstreak eggs near Weston-on-the-Green in Oxon, I found a young Oak Eggar caterpillar on blackthorn.  There are surprisingly few records of the adult moth from any of our three counties so it must exist at very low levels.  Like the Fox Moth and Emperor, the males are day-flyers so could more easily be overlooked, but the females fly at night and do come to light.  DAVE WILTON