As I am suffering from a lack of moths having caught almost nothing for two months I thought I might pull together my 2019 statistics using a similar format to Dave Wilton's earlier post.
Nights trapped 151 - 98 with 125w MV and 53 with 20w Eco bulb.
Total number of individuals 16,961.
Total number of species caught 461 - 267 macro and 194 micro
Nights with 100+ species 3
Best night 25th July 1077 individuals 125 species
Highest number of individuals for a species Heart and Dart 1197
New for the garden (bringing the total to 574) 77 species of which 21 were macros and 56 micros. Many thanks to Peter Hall for his willingness and patience sorting many of the micros including a batch that went mouldy in transit in the hot weather.
Best of the macros were Silver Cloud, Satin Lutestring, Crescent Dart, Dark Crimson Underwing and Clifden Nonpareil. Best of the micros Zelotherses unitana, Bryotropha basaltinella, Batrachedra pinicolella, Phyllonorycter blancardella and Bohemannia pulverosella The last two although 'Common' had apparently not been recorded in Oxfordshire since 1988 and 1987 respectively.
Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.
Thanks for presenting the details from your garden, Andy - I always find these kind of annual updates fascinating. You had some really good macro-moths in 2019 and only one of the five you mention has made its way here so far (the Clifden Nonpareil).
ReplyDeleteI'm very surprised about your comment re Phyllonorycter blancardella being the first VC23 record since 1988. I've found it regularly on our domestic apple since I first got seriously in to mines a decade or so ago. I know it can be confused with Phyllonorycter hostis which will use apple but the only one of that species I've had in the garden was reared through from a mine on quince. I've had sample adults from the apple checked regularly just in case (four in 2019) and they've always proved to be blancardella. Maybe VC23 suffers from a lack of leaf-mine enthusiasts!
When I submitted my 2019 records Martin Townsend commented that nobody has done much with the micros since the 1990s in VC23 (Oxfordshire) especially with species that don't come to light. In fact all my records were of adult moths and I really must make more of an effort with leaf mines in future.
DeleteI don't seem to get many migrants here or the species that are recent colonists but I do seem to pick up some moths that would be expected in the South-West particularly around the Severn estuary. Perhaps I am more upper Severn than Upper Thames!