Westcott, Bucks

Things are still ticking over in the garden here and some of this month's expected new arrivals have now turned up:  November Moth (9th), Pale November Moth (12th) & Merveille du Jour (13th), leaving Feathered Thorn and Sprawler to appear any day now.  Having had the two most common "Novemnals" I've now given up checking each and every one until I see a decent candidate for Autumnal Moth.

Micros have been almost non-existent over the last four or five nights but the macros are still doing reasonably well for the time of year.  Last night was a good example of current catches, with the temperature falling only to 8C here (although it did feel a bit colder than that at dawn!):  Red-green Carpet (2), Common Marbled Carpet (1), November Moth agg (7), Figure of Eight (1), Green-brindled Crescent (6), Vine's Rustic (1), Angle Shades (1), Barred Sallow (2), Beaded Chestnut (7), Red-line Quaker (5), Brick (2), Lunar Underwing (3), Dark Chestnut (2), Merveille du Jour (1), Black Rustic (5), White-point (1) & Large Yellow Underwing (5).

Merveille du Jour, Westcott 15th October

Other macro-moths seen over the past week have comprised Mallow, Cypress Pug, Willow Beauty, Pink-barred Sallow, Sallow, Chestnut, Blair's Shoulder-knot, Satellite, Deep-brown Dart, Turnip Moth, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Square-spot Rustic & Setaceous Hebrew Character.  The Cypress Pug and Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (both on the 12th) were my latest ever records.

A quick look at dead stems of yarrow Achillea millefolium in a sheep field off our road on the 11th found the usual large numbers of cases of Coleophora argentula in amongst the seed-pods, often several to one plant.  These active cases are quite easy to spot at the moment once you get your eye in (they over-winter like this). 

Yarrow seed-head with three cases of Coleophora argentula

Active case of Coleophora argentula, Westcott 11th October

I still haven't managed to track down Ectoedemia hannoverella on the many black poplars around our village, but while searching for it there have been quite a few sightings of Stigmella trimaculella which is easy to find at the moment along with the vacated "snail trail" mines of Phyllocnistis unipunctella.

Active mine of Stigmella trimaculella, Westcott 11th October

Finally, a quick search of narrow-leaved sallow Salix cf cinerea in our garden on 11th October produced a mine of Stigmella salicis, a species still undergoing research which should end up in a split.  To aid placing mines to the eventual correct species it is necessary to record the type of food-plant and (at the least) noting the position of the egg.  The example below is from "Cluster six" (egg upper-side, mine quite contorted), see here.  

Mine of Stigmella salicis, Westcott 11th October

Mine of Stigmella salicis, Westcott 11th October

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks