National Moth Nights

Well, at least they're done and dusted for another year so maybe we can now expect some better weather!  I ran an actinic and an MV in the garden on each of the three nights and the results weren't too bad.  The first (Thursday 26th) produced 298 moths of 24 species, the second (Friday 27th) 325 moths of 29 species and the third (Saturday 28th) 358 moths of 34 species.  It may seem a bit counter-intuitive that last night, when it rained all the way through from dusk until dawn, turned out to be the best but it is often the case that rainy nights are good for moths.  The overall species count here for those three nights came to 50, comprising 9 micros and 41 macros.  There were no real surprises, no migrants and the NMN target of Clifden Nonpareil didn't show (I had my annual garden record several weeks ago now).  Late examples of Heart & Dart and Flounced Rustic were perhaps noteworthy, while local specialities Figure of Eight and Dusky-lemon Sallow were good to see.  Mallow seems to be doing particularly well this year.  Not a guaranteed annual visitor to the garden, four of them came to light last night and they take my count for the year to 12, the first time it has ever reached double figures.  There was just the one species new for the year over the NMN period, a Green-brindled Crescent on the 27th.

Green-brindled Crescent, Westcott 27th September

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks