New for Bucks

Last night's thundery conditions ensured that it was a good one for moths in the garden here at Westcott, Bucks.  I haven't had time to count them up but the total was probably about 140 species with the micros making their best yet showing of the year.  However, it was down to the macros to provide particular excitement.  The trap had been run under a gazebo and when closing it up at 4am this morning I noticed a Kent Black Arches perched under the gazebo roof, well out of reach.  Casting health and safety rules aside, I balanced a stool on a garden chair and amazingly managed to climb up and pot it without breaking bones or anything else!  That wasn't the only good moth, though, because inside the trap was an example of Eublemma parva, the Small Marbled, which I believe is a first for Bucks of this tiny migrant macro-moth (wing length 8mm).  I wonder how many were missed last night by folk who "don't do micros" and thought it was one of them?!

Kent Black Arches, Westcott 3rd July

Small Marbled, Westcott 3rd July

Other new-for-year macros included Leopard Moth, Toadflax Pug, Scalloped Oak, Brown-tail & Waved Black.  I don't get Brown-tail here very often (this was the fifth garden record and the first since 2010).  It was a particularly frisky individual and wouldn't sit still showing the important bit, its brown tail, so here's a view of its underside in the cleanest and least scratched pot I could find.

Brown-tail, Westcott 3rd July

New micros for the year included Ypsolopha sequella, Brachmia blandella, Scrobipalpa acuminatella, Batrachedra praeangusta, Blastodacna hellerella, Agapeta zoegana, Zeiraphera isertana, Epinotia signatana, Spilonota ocellana, Cydia fagiglandana & Pempelia formosa.  The only other migrants accompanying the Small Marbled were Nomophila noctuella (3).

Dave Wilton