Newton Longville moths in 2022

Rather belatedly, I have finished entering moth records for 2022 into my database and analysing them.  They'll go on to Martin tomorrow.

The mothing year at home can be summed up in the table below.  I have continued running two traps simultaneously in the garden: one using a self-built 15W LED light with a range of wavelengths (heavy in ultraviolet) and the other with a 15W actinic light.  From mid-March 2022 onwards, the actinic striplight was replaced by its Synergetic equivalent which emits in the green wavelengths as well as in the blue and UV colours typical of actinic lights.  I'm not sure it has made much of a difference.

The "Site Total" column also includes moths found in the house and garden by means other than light-trapping.

By comparison with 2021, the number of moths caught was up by about 5% and the number of species caught was also slightly higher.  This is despite the lower level of trapping effort (57 nights vs 70 in 2021).  In 2022 I missed a lot of the peak season largely by being overseas: although I managed to trap on nine nights in May, I missed three weeks in June and I only managed to run the traps at home once each in July and August.

There were ups and downs amongst the species: some grass moths did markedly better than the year before, for example Agriphila tristella went from 13 to 168 individuals.  Shuttle-shaped Dart and Large Nutmeg did well and the abundant Large Yellow Underwing and Lunar Underwing both more than doubled their numbers.  On the other hand, Common Wainscot did particularly poorly (74 individuals in 2022, down from 300 in 2021), as did Setaceous Hebrew Character.  Compared to the cold, wet spring of 2021, many spring and early summer species emerged two to four weeks earlier in my garden in 2022.

2022 was my fourth full year of trapping and I added 42 species (evenly divided between micros and macros) to the garden list which now stands at 442: 260 macros and 182 micros not counting aggregates or records at genus level.  A few of the new micros were thanks to Peter and would otherwise have remained as aggregates as in previous years.  Most new species were unexceptional but (subject to verification in some cases) I was pleased to get Tachystola acroxantha, Elachista luticomella, Cydia fagiglandana, Small Marbled, Dewick's Plusia, Toadflax Brocade, Scarce Bordered Straw and Mere Wainscot.  I also caught a dozen Scrobipalpa ocellatella which would have been very noteworthy in previous years but they seemed to be everywhere last year.

I also increased my recording of by-catch of other taxa.  I've made progress with Caddisflies, I managed some Dor Beetles, a couple of easier Diptera and even two ichneumons.

Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks