Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Back garden.

Dave consistently gets good numbers in his back garden. On the same night (night before last) I took just 36 moths of 24 species in my Chorleywood back garden. I did, however, get 3 Tachystola acroxantha and I post a photo, showing how a rather worn and poorly marked specimen can look very little like the images in the books.

Rather more like the 'proper' thing is this image of an Argyresthia. I think it's an A. pruniella, but does anybody disagree and think bonnetella?

Andy King.
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4 comments:

  1. Peter Hall11 June 2014 at 12:16

    Hi Andy, the Dissection site still lacks images of acroxantha and it would be very useful to get some put on there. Your Argyresthia is indeed pruniella.

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    Replies
    1. Andrew King11 June 2014 at 16:41

      Thanks chaps. I think I've kept one of the Tachy ax and I'll retain any others I get for surgery.
      Andy.

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  2. Dave Wilton11 June 2014 at 12:26

    Hi Andy, I agree with pruniella too.

    If it makes you feel any better I had a grand total of 30 moths of 20 species in last night's garden trap, along with a very large hornet (my first here since 2009). The only saving grace was a nice Privet Hawk-moth. This year I've been trapping in the garden without a sheet but last night I put one underneath for the first time, as well as moving the light to a more exposed position on the lawn, and it must have acted as a beacon for the local Brown Long-eared Bat population because there were as many moth wings on and close to the sheet as there were species in the trap. Back to the normal less exposed spot tonight, without a sheet...

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  3. Marc Botham11 June 2014 at 14:00

    My garden is usually up there both in terms of numbers and species, but it has been very poor and like you guys 20-30 species is the best I've done and nothing particularly exciting has turned up. And, again like you Dave, a fresh Privet Hawkmoth was the only saving grace last night. So far this year, with the exception of Hummingbird Hawkmoth, I have had a very poor turn out of Hawkmoths with just a handful of Poplars and one Privet. Usually by this time of year I have had Pine, Lime, plenty of Poplars, a fair few Small Elephant, a few Eyed and the start of quite a lot of Privet and a few Elephant Hawks. This difference is not exclusive to hawkmoths, I have not seen a lot of species I would normally have seen by now or have only seen the odd one of species i usually get relatively frequently.

    Outside of the garden I am finding that species numbers are greater (between 60 and 100 regularly) but the abundances are poor with many species just single individuals. This run of warm weather should hopefully start bringing more stuff out :)

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