Comparatively few moths came to the traps last night, but they were quite interesting all the same. Fewer
Orthosia, a couple of species - Least Black Arches and Waved Umber - that had only appeared once before, and three new moths for the year-list.
At around 11 p.m., I checked the traps and found a smart-looking Knot Grass settled on the sheet behind a trap. That's my first of the season, "on time" according to the books. Much more of a surprise was the Buff-tip that I found in the egg cartons: it was a spanking-fresh specimen when I potted it, but seems to have battered itself quite a lot overnight before I could photograph it today.
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| Buff-tip, Newton Longville 23 April |
The phenology chart in the
Atlas of Britain & Ireland's Larger Moths has an almost-invisible bar for the last week of April as does the chart on the Norfolk Moths site, and the Waring, Townsend & Lewington field guide says it appears in late May. I suppose that it's worth bearing in mind that there will be a large number of records for this species, so even a tiny percentage will correspond to quite a few early records.
The third moth is definitely one that I haven't seen this year, but it can't go onto the "new-for-the-year" list just yet because I can't give it a name: can anyone help?
Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteYour unidentified micro is Endrosis sarcitrella.
Thanks Dave. Surprising that I missed it, but I've gone back through the key again and think that I accidentally eye-skipped a bit yesterday, so I didn't look at the Oecophoridae. A very weak excuse is that it's just before what seems to be a formatting mistake very near to the end of the key that might have distracted me (Sterling, Parsons & Lewington, page 39, Group Q).
ReplyDeleteRather amazingly, this is not just a first-for-the-year entry for me, but it's a lifer (although "life" in this case is only two years of mothing).