Front Door Lights

Stoke Goldington, North Bucks. It's not always essential to set a trap to attract good moths. This attractive Pinion-spotted Pug came to my front door lights (albeit actinic), then stayed all next day!

Emperor females

 A first for me in Sherington.Not one but 2 Emperors!Still pretty sparse catches though.

If I am correct in identifying these as females,should I expect males?

Day-flying micros

Today's sunshine brought out some of the early-season micros.  Seen while carrying out a butterfly transect in Finemere Wood, Bucks were more than 30 examples of the primitive micro Micropterix calthella.  The adults are unusual in that they feed on pollen and were mostly favouring garlic mustard, but some were also seen on wood anemone and celandine.  The long-horn moth Adela reaumurella was also starting to appear there in some numbers, mostly flying above blackthorn, while Incurvaria masculella was recorded flitting around hawthorn. 

Micropterix calthella, Finemere Wood 29th April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

Scarce Prominent

I took a couple of MV lights into Bernwood Forest last night.  The forecast occasional drizzle turned into rather persistent heavy rain even as I was setting up (meaning soggy sheets under the traps for the duration, never a happy situation) but the temperature remained in double figures until after midnight and it was worth persevering anyway because the session would probably be my only chance to see Scarce Prominent this year.  The moth is restricted to significant areas of its larval food-plant birch and it has a relatively short flight period, mostly in April (the latest I personally have ever recorded it is 5th May).  Last night proved to be a good one to choose with 14 of them turning up between the two lights, suggesting that the Bernwood population is thriving.

Scarce Prominent, Bernwood Forest 22nd April

Scarce Prominent, Bernwood Forest 22nd April

The two traps brought in 116 moths of 24 species altogether, not an overwhelming total but quite acceptable in the circumstances.  The others comprised Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Diurnea fagella, Scrobipalpa acuminatella, Frosted Green, Spruce Carpet, Red-green Carpet, Brindled Pug, Early Tooth-striped, Brimstone Moth, Grey Birch, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Swallow Prominent, Great Prominent, Lunar Marbled Brown, Least Black Arches, Red Chestnut, Blossom Underwing, Small Quaker, Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, Twin-spotted Quaker, Chestnut & Nut-tree Tussock.  Apart from Scarce Prominent, the only species to achieve double-digit counts were Frosted Green (21), Brindled Pug (12) & Great Prominent (12). 

Grey Birch, Bernwood Forest 22nd April

Great Prominent, Bernwood Forest 22nd April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

 

A couple for checking

 These two looked a bit different in last night's catch.

I think the first is probably the reddish form of the Clouded Drab rather than Red Chestnut.

The second is possibly a rather worn White-marked?

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Clouded Drab?

 Is this Clouded Drab? I couldn't find any photos of the underwing on the internet which left only Skinner whose photos don't match.

  Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield

A couple of micros, in North Bucks

Last night, there were a welcome couple of micros for me to ponder. The first would be new to the garden, I think Caloptilia semifascia. The second perhaps one of the Scrobipalpa which require dissection?

Emperor moth but no lure

 Just had something odd happen. An Emperor moth just turned up, flew round the garden a few times, landed on my trouser leg briefly and then went off. The odd thing is that I don't have a lure out. I did think I'd done something stupid and had the lure from 10 days ago still in my pocket but no, it was safely in the freezer and it had only been in my pocket 5-10 mins 10 days ago. Also I normally have to wait several hours for a moth to come to the lure, I'd only been out in the garden for 25 mins. Do they sometimes land on clothing even when you don't have a lure?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

 

 Very attractive new Micro as part of first decent catch for weeks!

Apt English name of Acleris cristana is Tufted Button.

Westcott, Bucks

Well, that was rather a poor fortnight.  Just ten moths were added to the garden list during the first two weeks of April, thanks to either cold and clear nights with a bright moon or else cloudy nights which were very windy and wet!  The additions were Pale Pinion (1st), Emperor Moth (2nd, daytime to the EMP lure), Agonopterix purpurea (5th), Nephopterix angustella (6th, mentioned in an earlier post), Mullein (9th), Brindled Pug (10th), Lunar Marbled Brown & Dark Sword-grass (both 11th) and Muslin Moth & Swallow Prominent (both 14th).  The Pale Pinion was a very smartly-marked specimen.  Dark Sword-grass was the first migrant species of the year here and quite a few of them were seen elsewhere in the country over this period. 

Pale Pinion, Westcott 1st April

Mullein, Westcott 9th April

Dark Sword-grass, Westcott 11th April

Muslin Moth, Westcott 14th April

However, the best visitor for me from this batch was the Lunar Marbled Brown.  While quite a common moth in local woodland, I rarely get to see it in the garden and this was the first to be recorded here since 2009.

Lunar Marbled Brown, Westcott 11th April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Stoke Common, Bucks.

After an excellent paper by Will Langdon in the splendidly named Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation a number of us started looking seriously for the larvae of Phyllonorycter ulicicolella, which Will had signalled was not as rare as has been thought. 

It is, however, formidably well hidden, mining, as it does, the younger stems of Gorse. The mines are difficult to spot and there can be a lot of false hopes and stabbed fingers checking them out. Much more difficult than simply finding mines is finding tenanted ones. 

It seems he is right, with three sites out of three checked in Herts last week giving positive results, (last record 1966). And my first attempt in Bucks - Stoke Common - proves the same. This is one of two caterpillars from Stoke, on the 12th:  

Back to dumb micro questions!

 This little beast managed to drown itself in the dog's water bowl last night! I imagine it's not in its usual resting position, which is my excuse for not being able to ID it. Can anyone help, please? Approx 7mm in length (without legs!)

Thanks, David

Away trapping

I've been to my "locals" a few times already (Bernwood Forest and Finemere Wood) but last night, with some cloud cover at last and the temperature expected to hold up in double digits prior to rain arriving after midnight, I thought I'd make a start on visiting the half dozen or so other sites in Bucks at which I have made arrangements for regular trapping this year.  A couple of them are small areas of woodland in Aylesbury Vale, located in what is otherwise arable desert (and as a result quite under-recorded so far as invertebrates are concerned).  One such site near Granborough received its first three-hour session last night and, as always, it was a pleasure to go to somewhere new even though I wasn't expecting much!  Two MV traps were run underneath several really old oaks surrounded by blackthorn scrub and just short of 200 moths of 21 species put in an appearance, which was quite acceptable in the circumstances.  There were no surprises and the bulk of the count was made up by Small Quaker (78), Common Quaker (32) and other Orthosias, but new for me this year were Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Frosted Green & Shuttle-shaped Dart.     

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Granborough 9th April

Frosted Green, Granborough 9th April

Shuttle-shaped Dart, Granborough 9th April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks    

Red Sword-grass

 Having waded through all the orthosias in last night's catch, I had a bit of a shock when I found this on the floor of the trap. 

I was pretty sure what it was, but did for a moment wonder whether it was not a bit of wood! Presumably that's what one is meant to think as it subsequently behaved more like a stick than a moth, and was completely unmoved as I manhandled it for photos.

Needless to say a first for the garden, and perhaps the first for NW Bucks?

Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula) larva

I was looking for sawflies on my garden roses today and whilst doing so spotted a caterpillar, c30mm long.

I believe this to be a Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula) larva.  Please let me know if I've got this wrong! 

I've only recorded this Local species a few times, mostly as adults.  

I've only had it in the garden trap twice, I never thought it might be breeding here.  

Neil Fletcher
Walter's Ash, VC24

Better luck today with Emperor Moth

I tried the EMP pheromone in the garden again today in the glorious sunshine with more success.  

It took a while but a fresh male appeared and posed obligingly for photos.

Neil Fletcher
Walter's Ash, VC24

Pammene giganteana (Early Oak Piercer)

Given the sunshine earlier today, I thought I'd dig a couple of pheromones out of the freezer.  

The first one brought results very quickly, I had 4 Pammene giganteana (Early Oak Piercer) to the SKI lure within a couple of hours.  

I also tried the EMP lure which did attract one Saturnia pavonia (Emperor Moth), though it did not hang around long enough to get a photo.  Perhaps tomorrow!

Neil Fletcher
Walter's Ash, VC24

Nephopterix angustella

We have a couple of large bushes of spindle Euonymus europaeus in our garden (one is now quite substantial, over 12ft tall) which are well-used by moth larvae.  The leaves provide food for the caterpillars of Ypsolopha mucronella (of which I've had three over-wintering adults to light already this year) and I get larval webs of Yponomeuta cagnagella annually, while the fruit are used by the caterpillars of the smart pyrale Nephopterix angustella.  The adults of the latter species appear regularly in the moth trap in two generations between the second half of May and mid-September, with more than 70 records in the garden since 2006 when the first bush was planted.  Last year angustella had a bumper season here with 30 individuals trapped.  The earliest sighting for Westcott - which is also the earliest for Bucks as a whole - is 18th May (in 2020), so the surprise appearance of one to light here last night was nearly six weeks ahead of expectations locally - that's quite noteworthy!  They over-winter as pupae and the books do say that they can start to appear from the end of April, but this one must somehow have been tempted to emerge very early indeed.  That might be understood if we'd had an unexpected warm spell but the weather over the past month has been colder and damper than the average.

Nephopterix angustella, Westcott 6th April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks  

More Emperors!

 We bred this species through from eggs laid inside a moth trap last April. Some six females have emerged so far in the last week and within 20 mins of placing them on Cholesbury Common yesterday, a male arrived. Two others turned up when individual females were placed in two nearby gardens. So we hope there are now at least three females laying fertile eggs in our area. As far as we know, until last year, no Emperors had been recorded on our local patch.

Here are a couple of photos showing the mating pair, a couple of the other females, and one of the pristine males 'the morning after'!

At least, this time, I'm not showing my ignorance of micros by asking daft questions!

Best wishes, David

Is this Agonopterix purpurea?

I put my Emperor moth lure out in the afternoon sunshine yesterday. No Emperor moths materialised, but after about 25 minutes this micro appeared, clearly attracted by the lure. It was very lively and had to be cooled down in the fridge before any picture was possible. It looks rather like Agonopterix purpurea, which would be a new addition to the garden list.

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Poor March

This Brindled Pug marked the end of a very poor March in my cold Stoke Goldington, North Bucks garden: with 13 blank nights, 25 species comprising just 253 individuals, compared with 35 species comprising 791 individuals last year. Here's hoping for a better April!

Drabs

 

Being cautious as Lead would be a new moth but think these two from my Penn garden on 28/03/23 are Lead & Coloured Drabs left & right respectively. The rounded termen, slightly smaller size, darker colour & possibly the dashes are steering me on ID for Lead. Any thoughts?   

Emperor Moth

The sun came out at lunchtime today so, even though the temperature was only 9C at the time, I thought it worth trying the pheromone lure for Emperor Moth in the garden.  Sure enough, within the hour I was rewarded with this very fresh-looking male:

Emperor Moth, Westcott 2nd April

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks