Westcott, Bucks

New species for the 2019 garden list over the past week have included Pine Carpet (30th September), my half-a-Vestal (3rd October), Acleris rhombana (4th October) and the very photogenic Merveille du Jour (5th October).

Pine Carpet, Westcott 1st October

Merveille du Jour, Westcott 5th October

The garden actinic trap is still hovering around 30 species each night - in fact exactly that last night - and fresh examples of Satellite (first noted 3rd) and Chestnut (f/n 4th) have also now started to appear.  Mallow is still going strong with 23 sightings here now, way more than I've ever had before in a single year.  Black Rustic has reached 625 individuals, already over 200 more than my previous best garden total, while Lunar Underwing is currently a dozen short of 2,000 but I doubt it'll surpass the record of 3,570 achieved in 2014.  Over the last few nights it has been noticeable that there was not a great deal of activity from these two species before midnight but that they went berserk around the trap just before dawn.

Micro-moths are few and far between in the trap now.  Last night saw just three of them, single examples of Acleris variegana, the inevitable Epiphyas postvittana and the delightful little plume moth Alucita hexadactyla.

Alucita hexadactyla, Westcott 5th October

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks