Westcott, Bucks

Considering the time of year the first half of December was actually quite reasonable for moths here although, as you'd expect, diversity has dropped quite significantly now.  There was nothing on the 1st and 2nd due to freezing temperatures by dusk, but since then I've always had at least three or four individual moths each night apart from a surprising blank on the 13th when nothing turned up despite the minimum temperature being +2C.  It shows how hit and miss things can be at this time of year because the following night (14th) was only two or three degrees warmer but 19 moths of three species turned up.  The full list of species seen over this period is as follows:  Agonopterix arenella, Mompha subbistrigella, December Moth, Winter Moth, Northern Winter Moth, Feathered Thorn, Mottled Umber, Satellite & Chestnut.   

Agonopterix arenella, Westcott 15th December

Winter Moth & Northern Winter Moth, Westcott 8th December

Satellite, Westcott 6th December

The night of the 8th saw a resurgence in December Moth visits after two weeks with no sightings here at all.  Ten appeared that night, followed by further examples on the 9th, 10th, 11th & 14th which take this season's count to 69, a record for the garden.  The photo of the Northern Winter Moth above, admittedly of a rather worn individual, doesn't do the moth justice because the silkier appearance of the fore-wings isn't apparent in the image and it refused to show its whitish hind-wings for the camera (every attempt to push forward one of the fore-wings ended with it flying off, unusual because they're normally very docile!).  All the same, it was nice to see because the species isn't an annual here, the last garden sighting being in 2020.

On the 10th another interesting beetle came to the actinic light, this time one of the smallest of the "long-horns" which all have quite spectacular antennae.  It was Pogonocherus hispidus, a species associated with decaying wood which, perhaps thanks to the assorted piles of dead branches left to rot around the edge of our garden, I've had previously here a few times.  Other night-time records of it from Westcott at this time of year include sightings in November (2019) and January (2021) so the beetle presumably over-winters as an adult.   

Pogonocherus hispidus, Westcott 10th December

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks