Quite a reasonable catch of 240 moths in my garden trap last night. I had singles of Light Emerald, Common Emerald, Small Emerald and Large Emerald, the latter being a first for the garden. It was actually about 2 feet from the trap on the lawn.
There were 2 other macros new to my garden list - Lackey and Phoenix.
Finally, there was 1 new micro which I think is Phtheochroa inopiana? The fw measured 9mm and I include both a side view and a top view.
If I remember correctly, Steve Goddard had one of these in his Wolvercote garden.
Steve Trigg, Cookham
Some nice moths there, Steve. Large Emerald is always a favourite of mine. You are correct with Phtheochroa inopiana which seems to have gone berserk this year and is popping up everywhere! When Peter Hall and I trapped in Bernwood Forest last week the moth appeared at every trap and one of mine had no less than 24 of them in it. In Bucks it didn't join the county list until 2006 (...co-incidentally the last really good migrant year) and prior to the current season there were only about 30 county records. It has been around in Berkshire for a lot longer (Baker records it from a few sites from 1900 onwards) but I imagine it was probably still quite scarce until this year.
ReplyDeleteAnd quite right -- we've had Phtheochroa in Wolvercote in fact a number of times since 27th June, having not previously recorded it since we started mothing in 2012.
ReplyDeletefunny thing is I got Large Emerald for the firswt time too - sitting on the cover I have for my electrics - I also had Light Emerald and my first Common Emerald of the year.
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