Pearl and Carpet

It was a treat to find this little Fenland Pearl in the trap this morning (and thanks to the wonderful UTM Atlas for giving me that name, rather than the Latin Anania perlucida, though that's better than they often are). I thought at first that it was a pygmy Mother of Pearl but later discovered that I've had one before, though I've yet to track down whether that was here or during my years in Leeds.  May I also check that the little chap below encountered on a daytime is a Blue-bordered Carpet?  Sorry for poor pics. And sorry too, but I can't resist adding the lovely Privet Hawk, only the third of my usual hawks to arrive so far, after lots of Poplars and one Eyed. Moths here are good but low in numbers.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

A North Bucks Orthotaenia undulana?

 At last, a better night for moths, including the tortrix, below. I think it could be a candidate for Orthotaenia undulana, which looks like it would be the first record for SP84 (according to the UTB atlas map).

Westcott, Bucks

Much of this two-week period was very disappointing indeed for moths because the country was trapped in Arctic northerlies for a large part of it, resulting in some very chilly days as well as nights.  It started off well with some decent sessions and on the night of 3rd June the catch came to 198 individuals of 83 species, but then the weather deteriorated and on the night of the 10th the two garden traps produced only nine moths of eight species, quite unprecedented for this time of year.  By the end of the period counts had slowly begun to increase again, with 56 individuals of 35 species on the 15th, although that total is still quite a way below what I'd usually expect to be getting in mid-June.

The year-list count is currently in the 290s but that doesn't yet include the results of any dissections so the actual position will now be well past 300, a milestone normally achieved here during the second week of June.  It would therefore seem that, despite the cold snap, the moths are appearing roughly when they should be even if their overall numbers are depressed.  Adult species added over this period have included the following:

     (1st)  Parapoynx stratiotata/Ringed China-mark

     (2nd)  Monopis crocicapitella, Ditula angustiorana, Pandemis cerasana, Hedya nubiferana, Eudonia pallida, Crambus perlella, Nymphula nitidulata/Beautiful China-mark, Red-tipped Clearwing (daytime, to lure), Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Treble Brown Spot, Barred Yellow, Green Pug, Beautiful Hook-tip, Brown Rustic, Dark Arches

     (3rd)  Prays fraxinella, Choristoneura hebenstreitella, Clepsis consimilana, Agapeta hamana, Eucosma cana, Eucosma hohenwartiana (retained for checking), Cydia pomonella, Myelois circumvoluta, Anania perlucidalis, Small Dusty Wave, Yellow Shell, Varied Coronet

     (4th)  Blue-bordered Carpet

     (5th)  Sloe Pug, Heart and Club

     (6th)    - nil -

     (7th)  Tortrix viridana

     (8th)  Orange-tailed Clearwing (daytime, to lure)

     (9th)  Bryotropha terrella, Scoparia basistrigalis

     (10th)  - nil -  

     (11th)  - nil -

     (12th)  Barred Straw 

     (13th)  Metalampra italica, Elephant Hawk-moth, Lilac Beauty   

     (14th)  Archips podana, Four-dotted Footman, Light Arches 

     (15th)  Celypha striana, Uncertain 

Archips podana, Westcott 14th June

Nymphula nitidulata, Westcott 2nd June

Green Pug, Westcott 2nd June

Varied Coronet, Westcott 3rd June

The smart Varied Coronet was undoubtedly this period's best visitor.  It makes only occasional appearances in the garden and this was the first since 2019.  There was nothing else unexpected and the only other moth worthy of note was the rather odd-looking example of Udea olivalis shown below.  In good condition, it lacks the usual square of white at mid-wing and the other white markings are either subdued or absent.

Udea olivalis, Westcott 3rd June

The Gypsy Moth caterpillars which I've been rearing from an egg-mass found on a wall of our house back on 4th May (see here) are now in their final instar and should be pupating very soon.  

Gypsy Moth larva, Westcott 15th June

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

Purple Bar

It looks like I've been unlucky not to have ever seen this before during 5 years plus of trapping reasonably frequently, but it's the first for my garden or for Cholesbury and Hawridge commons since 2010. How frequent is it in our area? Thanks, David

.

Scoparia/Eudonia?

 I always have trouble with these! The distinguishing features often seem obscured and then there's all that variation!

Can anyone help with these two - caught in a Robinson two nights ago near Chesham.

Many thanks

David

Bryotropha terrella?

I am fairly sure the second image is of Bryotropha terrella, but I'm not certain about the first, There appears to be a hint of a paler band at three-quarters, but there are no dark spots. There is a fairly similar image on the Gelechiid recording scheme site, though, so it seems likely. 

 

Cold in Stoke Goldington (N. Bucks)

A couple of days ago I purchased a max/min thermometer so that I can record the minimum overnight temperature in order to assess the affect that this has on the number of moths trapped. I thought that the minimum of 6.8 C on 7th was low, but last night (8th) the recorded temperature fell to 2.2 C, which is obscenely low for this date in June, and perhaps accounting for the total of just 7 moths across two traps! Unfortunately, cold air always seems to get funnelled into my garden, as it lies at the bottom of three converging slopes.

Tortrix query

Am I correct in thinking that this micro trapped in my garden last night is Lobesia abscisana?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Psychoides

 Having got the clearwing lures out this week the only clearwing I have recorded so far isRed-belted.

However, the SAL lure seems very effective at attracting the Psychoides species having had 5 of each verhuella and filicivora in the last couple of days.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, OXON.

Help with IDs please?

 A couple from Garsington, Oxford earlier this week. I think I have Epiblema scutulana and Eudonia lacustrata?

Mark Griffiths

Away trapping again

I managed to get out on both of our recent warmer nights, 2nd and 3rd June.  On the 2nd a couple of MV traps were run in Finemere Wood and between them they produced about 90 species.  Numbers of Tortrix viridana and Choristoneura hebenstreitella were building but weren't yet at the "plague" proportions you'd normally expect at this time of year.  There was also just a single Archips crataegana and no sign at all yet of Archips xylosteana but I'm sure they'll be along in huge numbers very shortly.  Macro species recorded there which I hadn't yet seen this year included Peach Blossom, Blotched Emerald, Cream Wave, Small Rivulet, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Light Arches & Beautiful Golden Y.

Pale-shouldered Brocade, Finemere Wood 2nd June

Beautiful Golden Y, Finemere Wood 2nd June

The following night (3rd June) the same two MV traps were run at BBOWT's Leaches Farm, part of their River Ray Reserves adjacent to the Bucks/Oxon border.  Leaches Farm is a collection of ridge-and-furrow flood-plain meadows on the south side of the A41, rich in wild flowers and bordered by thick un-managed hedgerows.  It was also one of the places I hadn't yet managed to visit this year mainly because it was so wet.  The site is still very damp even now but I'm glad I went because this proved to be the first really good away trapping session of the year.  The species count came to well past 100 and the number of individual moths was almost 700 in the usual three hours, not at all bad for this kind of habitat.  New species for the year here included Zelotherses paleana, Elophila nymphaeata, Anania fuscalis, Homoeosoma sinuella, Myelois circumvoluta, Elephant Hawk-moth, Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Blue-bordered Carpet, Double Dart, Gold Spot & Dotted Fan-foot.

Double Dart, Leaches Farm 3rd June

I last trapped regularly at Leaches Farm about 15 years ago.  Double Dart and Dotted Fan-foot are certainly new for the site list, the former an excellent record of a species very much in decline locally while the latter is a post-millennium arrival in our region and Leaches Farm is very much the kind of damp habitat it seems to favour.

         

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

 Hi there,

This turned up in my trap last night. It's new to me, but I think it can only be P conwagana, but what a wonderful specimen! Please confirm that I've got it right - and is this an unusually well-marked individual?

Thanks, David

Stigmella sp.

This tiny (3mm) moth might be Stigmella basiguttella, looking at photos in Manley. This photo might be useful for the UT atlas if correctly identified. Or does it need gen. det.?

Janice, Milton Keynes

Bucculatrix sp?

Steve Lockey (Garsington)
 

Help needed with 2 micros

I almost missed this tiny micro (leaf-miner size) in the bottom of my garden trap. I don't know if it can be identified just from my photo?

The second micro I need help with has fw length 6mm and looks distinctive, but I can't place it.

Many thanks, Steve Trigg, Cookham

Clearwing time

The FOR (Red-tipped) and VES (Yellow-legged) pheromone lures were placed out in the garden at 11am this morning and I was out and about with the API (Six-belted) and TAB (Dusky) lures this afternoon.  The FOR lure attracted a single male Red-tipped Clearwing at 5pm (arrival seen) but none of the others produced anything.  Still, I was quite pleased at being successful with one out of four!

Red-tipped Clearwing, Westcott 2nd June

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks    

Westcott, Bucks

The garden has continued to notch up new moths for the year-list and getting to 250 by the beginning of June is actually pretty good.  Looking back over the previous five years I've only managed that once in May (on the 27th, in 2020).  Species are appearing roughly as and when they should, but my feeling is that overall abundance is still depressed because I'm not getting great numbers of anything, not even Treble Lines which is usually providing the highest counts at this time of year.  During the second half of May nightly catches varied between 38 individuals of 23 species (31st, when the temperature fell to 6C here in a strong NE breeze) and 150 of 45 species (25th, one of only two counts above 100 in this period).  That's to two traps, one MV (first deployed at the beginning of May) and one actinic.  The new ones didn't include anything out of the ordinary but are listed below, adult moths only and not including things like Coleophora species retained for close inspection:   

     (16th)  Platyptilia gonodactyla, Hedya pruniana, Fox Moth, Cypress Carpet, Purple Bar, Lime-speck Pug, Scorched Wing, Cinnabar, Bright-line Brown-eye

     (17th)  Cauchas rufimitrella, Pyrausta aurata, Scoparia ambigualis, Freyer's Pug, Pale Oak Beauty

     (18th)  Miller, Middle-barred Minor, Shoulder-striped Wainscot 

     (19th)  Glyphipterix simpliciella, Argyresthia cupressella, Bryotropha basaltinella (retained for checking), Neocochylis molliculana, Grapholita funebrana, Phycitodes maritima, Small Phoenix

     (20th)  Depressaria radiella, Udea olivalis

     (21st)  Blastobasis lacticolella, Crambus lathoniellus, Silver-ground Carpet, Straw Dot, White-point

     (22nd)  Scrobipalpa costella, Burnished Brass, Pale Mottled Willow, Vine's Rustic, Small Clouded Brindle

     (23rd)  Peppered Moth, Turnip Moth, Setaceous Hebrew Character

     (24th)  Ptycholoma lecheana, Endothenia nigricostana, Notocelia trimaculana, Marbled White Spot

     (25th)  Lyonetia clerkella, Chrysoteuchia culmella, Privet Hawk-moth

     (26th)  Luquetia lobella, Aproaerema anthyllidella, Scoparia pyralella, Eyed Hawk-moth, Heart and Dart, Ingrailed Clay

     (27th)  Blood-vein

     (28th)  Paraswammerdamia albicapitella, Lathronympha strigana, Nephopterix angustella, Large Nutmeg

     (29th)  Tinea semifulvella, Eudonia lacustrata, Cataclysta lemnata, Clouded Brindle

     (30th)  Orthotaenia undulana, Grey Pug, Mottled Rustic, Small Dotted Buff  

     (31st)  Nematopogon metaxella, Mottled Beauty  

Ptycholoma lecheana, Westcott 24th May

Fox Moth female, Westcott 16th May

Fox Moth male, Westcott 25th May

Cypress Carpet, Westcott 16th May

Cypress Carpet is a newcomer to this area.  My first garden record was in November 2021 then I had two last autumn and now another pair so far this year (the second was on 20th May).

Endothenia nigricostana (24th) was as usual found during the daytime by keeping an eye on the leaves of our copious amounts of garden Hedge Woundwort Stachys sylvatica.  It was a particularly dark example.

Endothenia nigricostana, Westcott 24th May

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks