Scoring a century is hard work for the "scorer"

I have only really been mothing for three years, so identification is still a slog, especially in peak season.  When "processing" a trap, I write down any moths I can confidently identify, but I photograph anything else, which is rather a lot!  More than a few tentative identifications are changed when I look at the photo on a big screen and check text and figures in books and websites.

Previously, the highest number of species I have caught in a single night in my garden was 73, set on 30th June this year, and narrowly beating 71 and 72 last summer.  I also caught 90 species in a single night in France last summer, but on that occasion I had a lot of help with identification.

I ran my two traps in the garden on the night of 8th July.  I spent almost the whole of the following day processing the catch and I have finally finished examination of the photos.  That night has smashed my records with 113 probable species from a coincidentally round total of precisely 500 moths.  These exclude a handful of moths that were too worn to bother with, but include aggregates and some moths that will need dissection to confirm or to get to species level.

Although that's 40 more species than my previous record night at home, a rather smaller figure of 13 species were new for the garden list, and none of those was especially noteworthy (examples of common species at last getting onto the garden list include Scarlet Tiger, Blue-bordered Carpet and Crambus pascuella).

I'd appreciate some confirmations on a few of them. I think this is a White-point as it seems different from the Clays that I have caught on other occasions.

Probable White-point
Newton Longville, 8th July 2021

I have recorded the next one as Epinotia tenerana, but it has rather less of the "old blood" colour than most other examples that I can find.

Probable Epinotia tenerana
Newton Longville, 8th July 2021

Then some moths that aren't recorded in the above figures as I think the identification isn't strong enough.  The best theory I can come up with for the third moth is a particularly obscure example of Eudemis profundana.  After toying with various Pyralids (and despite another individual being a decent match for Acrobasis advenella), I think the last one may too far gone to count.

There were a few somewhat less common moths amongst the catch, including Beautiful Hook-tip (having a good year here), Least Carpet, Brown Scallop, Dingy Shears and Ethmia dodecea.  The Chrysoteuchia culmella count ran (just) into three figures, but a single Catoptria pinella brought some visual relief amongst the grass moths.  An early Copper Underwing (agg.) escaped my attempt to pot it for photography, and other insects that I don't usually find in the trap included a Meadow Brown butterfly, Water Boatmen and my first-ever Cockchafer.

Tim Arnold

Newton Longville