Merveille du Jour is the one moth of autumn which I never tire of seeing, no matter how frequently it turns up. My first for this year came to the garden actinic trap here at
Westcott, Bucks last night. Amongst a list of 25 species, it was accompanied by Pine Carpet (uncommon in the county, but I had one at this time last year too), Feathered Thorn and another Dark Sword-grass. Lunar Underwing has officially become the No.1 moth for this year in the garden, last night's count of 153 taking me past 3,000 individuals since its first appearance on 11th September. As usual, about a third of them were found scattered across the lawn, having failed to enter the trap. Another moth which is doing well here at the moment is the second brood of
Hypsopygia costalis (Gold Triangle). The photo below manages to show both of its resting positions in the same shot!
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| Merveille du Jour, Westcott 30th September |
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| Feathered Thorn, Westcott 30th September |
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| Hypsopygia costalis, Westcott 30th September |
I also took a couple of traps to
Salcey Forest to try and catch up on some of the autumn moths there. It was slow going but I eventually came away with 30 species, including
Phyllonorycter trifasciella (an easily recognisable member of that family which feeds on honeysuckle),
Acleris forsskaleana (presumably a second brood specimen), Figure of Eight, Small Wainscot and Pinion-streaked Snout.
Dave Wilton
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| Phyllonorycter trifasciella, Salcey Forest 30th September |
If you get another Merveille, or even better a Scare one, please send it to Thrupp! Lovely moths! All v best M
ReplyDeleteIf you'll excuse the double negative, they're not uncommon around here, Martin, so you stand quite a reasonable chance of getting one in your garden too! Like quite a few moths (especially at this time of year, I find), they don't always enter the trap so you need to keep an eye on the surrounding vegetation...
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