In the warmer if rather damp conditions in the garden last night there was a recovery in overall moth numbers with just short of 200 individuals from 44 species. Heart and Dart showed signs of action again with 27 of them coming to light, the first double-digit count here for a month. Maybe it has been hiding away during the hottest of the weather, as happens annually to Large Yellow Underwing. There was nothing new for the year, although Green Carpet and White-point put in their first second-brood appearances. The biggest surprise was the salt-marsh species
Ancylosis oblitella which came to light yet again, this time two of them of which one was very dark.
Pammene aurita was still around too, its eighth appearance here since 21st July having seemingly had a good season on our rather small sycamore.
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| Ancylosis oblitella (but see comments below), Westcott 11th August |
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| Pammene aurita, Westcott 11th August |
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
The only double-digit moth I had last night was Vine's Rustic. There were a few new for year species, including Cypress Pug (5 individuals).
ReplyDeleteYes, Vine's did rather well here last night too. The double-digit counts were from Heart & Dart (27), Setaceous Hebrew Character (24), Vine's Rustic (19), Straw Dot (17), Flame Shoulder (14) & Agriphila tristella (12).
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, it has been pointed out elsewhere that the dark version of Ancylosis oblitella illustrated above could also be Pyla fusca, something which had in fact crossed my mind when I first potted it. The moth has been retained and all will be revealed in due course...
ReplyDeleteBoth moths were checked, the normal one was Ancylosis oblitella and the dark one illustrated here did indeed prove to be Matilella (Pyla) fusca.
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