Westcott, Bucks

What a dismal week - is this really July?  New additions to the garden year-list have been few and far between: 

(1st)    - nil -
(2nd)   - nil -
(3rd)   - nil -
(4th)   Spilonota ocellana
(5th)   - nil -
(6th)   Anacampsis populella, Epermenia chaerophyllella, Hummingbird Hawk-moth (daytime) 
(7th)   Agapeta zoegana, Acrobasis suavella

The best night was the 1st with 302 moths of 57 species while the worst was the 5th with 115 moths of 36 species, both of those results being a combined total from two traps (one MV, one actinic).  I ran only the MV in last night's rain but the catch was 187 moths of 45 species which actually was quite reasonable in the circumstances.  However, the same week in 2019 was completely different, producing three nights with counts of more than 100 species, which is why the garden year-list now lies about 60 behind last year's total by 7th July!  Hopefully this is just swings and roundabouts and things will pick up quite soon.  The forecast certainly looks much better for next week. 

Agapeta zoegana, Westcott 7th July

There were still one or two nice items during the week even though they weren't new for the year-list.  Pine Hawk-moth and Shark each appeared on two of the nights, neither of them being particularly frequent here, while the migrant Dark Sword-grass also appeared twice.

Even though it was really windy, last Saturday night (4th) I took a couple of MV traps to nearby Finemere Wood for the usual three hours in advance of local road closures by HS2 Ltd which will make it difficult to get there for the next month.  The results actually weren't too bad, all things considered, with around 140 species recorded.  Minor Shoulder-knot was out in force (70+) and Black Arches was just starting.  Amongst the micros the grass-moth Chrysoteuchia culmella was way out in front (well over 400 seen), while Acrobasis repandana (100+) & Endotricha flammealis (54) were around in some numbers as you'd expect in woodland here at this time of year.  Quite a few nice micros braved the gusty conditions, including the two shown below.

Gelechia rhombella, Finemere Wood 4th July

Epinotia cruciana, Finemere Wood, 4th July

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks