Westcott, Bucks

Another week has passed, remarkable towards the end for a heat-wave which produced lots of moths but very few newcomers and, while the garden year-list has been added to on every one of the past seven days, it has still been a bit of a struggle.  We're definitely on the downward slope now so far as species are concerned although the traps will soon be getting busy again with the likes of Large Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character and Square-spot Rustic.  It seems most unlikely that many of the missing summer moths (mostly micros) will appear now so I'm going to have to wait until 2021 for them.

(5th)    Endothenia quadrimaculana, Vapourer, Double Lobed
(6th)    Parectopa ononidis, Elachista utonella, Scoparia subfusca
(7th)    Argyrotaenia ljungiana, Small Waved Umber
(8th)    Argyresthia bonnetella, Chevron, Toadflax Brocade, Campion, Square-spot Rustic
(9th)    Gold Spot
(10th)  Red Underwing
(11th)  Argyresthia goedartella, Aproaerema anthyllidella

The nights of the 9th, 10th and 11th each produced well over 100 species in the garden.  On the 10th there were no new ones at all in the traps and the Red Underwing attributed to that date was actually a daytime sighting, trying to find somewhere cool to perch on the shady side of the house.  Good that it is still here - in another ten years nupta might be the rarest Catocala locally!  Here's an image of another in our front garden at 4.30am this morning, enjoying a glass of a rather rough Australian Merlot before setting off for the day...

Red Underwing, Westcott 12th August

Two of the week's first-timers were actually completely new species for the garden, of which the Toadflax Brocade nearly escaped un-noticed!  During the afternoon of the 9th I took the previous night's catch to one of several release spots I use about a mile away from the house in order to ensure I don't get recaptures.  I'd already tapped out the egg trays and was about to give the trap itself a good thump to clear the remaining moths when I noticed this individual about to fly off.  It must have been hiding under the lip around the edge of the Robinson.  Needless to say it was quickly potted up and taken back home for a photo.

Toadflax Brocade, Westcott 8th August

The other first-timer was Elachista utonella which will be confirmed by dissection.  It needs to be separated from Elachista albidella (which I've had in the garden once before) as both are quite similar.

Likely Elachista utonella, Westcott 6th August

Of the other year-list additions, Endothenia quadrimaculana was making its second ever appearance in the garden (the first was in 2015), as was Campion (last seen in 2014), while Chevron is also quite a rare visitor here and hasn't been seen for five years.

Endothenia quadrimaculana, Westcott 5th August

Campion, Westcott 8th August

In addition to the grass moth species and Acentria ephemerella, big numbers to the nightly traps are currently being provided by Brimstone Moth and Common Wainscot (54 and 56 respectively on the 10th), while Cochylis molliculana is also appearing in unprecedented quantities (26 on the 10th, 41 on the 11th).  Thankfully the Footmen are all winding down now but that reminds me I've not seen Round-winged Muslin, Muslin Footman or Red-necked Footman anywhere this year, all three of which are past visitors to the garden.

Amongst the non-moths I've started to get crickets fairly regularly in the garden traps over the last couple of weeks (Speckled Bush-cricket Leptophyes punctatissima, Oak Bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum & Roesel's Bush-cricket Metrioptera roeselii so far this month) and even a couple of dragonflies in the past week (Small Red-eyed Damselfly Erythromma viridulum which I've not had before and Southern Hawker Aeshna cyanea which is a regular in the garden).  Beetles are still invading each night, in particular the small reddish ones (mostly Bradycellus verbasci) which never stop crawling about and manage to disturb everything.  Wasps are becoming more and more of a nuisance at the actinic light (about 30 last night) and they seem to be active all night now rather than just during the hour before dawn, but for the most part they keep flying around the bulbs and it seems to be only those on their last legs which fall into the trap.  It does mean that the cone and bulbs have to be extracted rather carefully when sealing up the trap.  At least I don't suffer from Hornets here...yet!

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks