A Good Night in the Garden

Like Martin, I had quite a good result in the garden here at Westcott, Bucks last night.  The trap wasn't overloaded with moths (Heart and Dart taking the lead with just 29 individuals), but 80 different species attended.  Some of the summertime pyrales are starting to appear, Phlyctaenia perlucidalis and Hypsopygia costalis/Gold Triangle being first sightings for 2014, while as usual my first phycitinid of the year was Pempelia formosa.  I seem to have cornered the market for the latter species in Bucks as there hasn't been a record of it from anywhere else in the county since 2006 yet I get it annually in the garden.  Other new micros included Bryotropha affinis, Agapeta hamana and Ancylis achatana.



Pempelia formosa, Westcott 9th June

There were few new arrivals amongst the 56 macro species, with only Double Dart, Burnished Brass and Beautiful Golden Y being additions to the garden year list.  Even though it is the epitome of drab-looking moths, Double Dart is always nice to see because it ranks joint second (at 98%, alongside Garden Dart and Dusky Thorn) behind V-Moth in the list of those moth species which suffered the greatest decline in numbers between 1968 and 2007.  It doesn't appear in the garden every year but I do get it quite regularly and in Bucks it seems to be restricted now to this north-western corner of the county.

Double Dart, Westcott 9th June

Dave Wilton