Stowe moths 2022

At the end of 2022, my third year of moth recording, the garden total now stands at 517. The total for the year was 436, of which 102 were new, (38 macro, 64 micro). Light trapping was done on 174 nights with a 20W actinic and a 120W MV—some nights with both, but on a number of nights just the MV, whilst the actinic was deployed off-site in local woodland. Best night was 17 July with 350 moths of 100 species across the two traps.
Lunar Underwing returned to being the most numerous species, having dropped to #6 in the ranking last year. Square-spot Rustic has rapidly climbed the ranks from 12^th place in 2020, to 7^th last year, to second most numerous in 2022. Most numerous micro was Chrysoteuchia culmella as it has been every year.
Highlights included: Evergestis limbata, a first for Bucks, and based on iRecord data this seems to be the furthest NW UK sighting, apart from a couple of sites in Leicestershire, one of which seems to have recorded the species almost annually for the past five years. 

Clifden Nonpareil, (finally!); Dusky-lemon Sallow, with only one prior (1963) record in the whole of northwest Bucks up to the end of 2020; and three new clearwing species—Sallow Clearwing, Currant Clearwing and Hornet Moth, (with exit holes of the latter found in the base of a mature poplar), bringing the garden clearwing total to eight species.

As to migrants, several Rusty-dot Pearls and Vestals put in an appearance, both new to the garden, with the latter apparently being the first records for the hectad according to the Atlas. It was also good to add some more identified cnephasia and coleophora species to the list, thanks to Peter, as well as a few expected species that had not so far put in an appearance, such as Twenty-plume Moth, Blossom Underwing, Peach Blossom, Bright-line Brown-eye, and Ear Moth. Still plenty to go at though!