Westcott, Bucks

Including, as it did, both the August Bank Holiday weekend and National Moth Nights, this was always going to be a dire week for weather!  I can't remember ever having had such poor garden results on nights in August (31st in 2019 brought 180 moths of 38 species, 31st in 2020 brought 35 moths of 14 species).  Still, there were one or two additions to the year-list over this period:

(26th)  Agonopterix nervosa
(27th)  Cypress Pug
(28th)  Feathered Gothic
(29th)  - nil -
(30th)  - nil -
(31st)  - nil -
(1st)    Acleris emargana 

Agonopterix nervosa, Westcott 26th August

Cypress Pug, Westcott 27th August

Feathered Gothic, Westcott 28th August

Although seemingly quite a common moth, Agonopterix nervosa was completely new for the site (micro no. 563 on the garden list).  Cypress Pug first appeared here in 2009 and has been an annual visitor since 2015 with numbers steadily increasing over the last couple of years (10 in 2019) so is obviously fairly well established now locally.  The appearance of Feathered Gothic reminds me that the similar-looking Gothic Naenia typica hasn't been seen in the garden since 2011.  In fact I haven't seen it anywhere in Bucks since 2016 and I don't think there have been any records for the county since that year so it seems to be a moth in trouble locally.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks