Westcott, Bucks

Catches since the beginning of the month by the two garden traps (I'm still using one 125w MV and one twin-30w actinic) have been typical of August and show that we're now well past the season's peak.  Thanks in part to second broods, a few nights have brought in close to 100 species but there have been comparatively few additions to the year-list.  We always used to say that between the beginning of August and the end of the year you'd be lucky to add 100 further species at any site locally and that still holds true.  Perversely, the number of individual moths in the traps could well start to rise now, dominated by species such as Large Yellow Underwing which have been largely dormant over the past couple of months as they undergo a period of aestivation.

Amongst the macros it is Flame Shoulder, the Common/Lesser Common Rustic pair and Straw Dot which are currently dominating catches in the garden, while species such as Oak Processionary, Gypsy Moth, Jersey Tiger, Webb's Wainscot and Tree-lichen Beauty, none of which would have been seen here even ten years ago, are appearing in small numbers nightly.  For the micros it is mostly grass moths (Agriphila straminella and Agriphila tristella now) which are keeping the numbers up, although the Yponomeuta group of Ermines are still giving them a run for their money.  Newcomers have included the following:     

     (1st)   - nil -

     (2nd)  Parectopa ononidis, Clavigesta purdeyi, Achroia grisella, Small Rivulet, Copper Underwing, Bulrush Wainscot, Six-striped Rustic

     (3rd)  Oak Eggar, Rosy Rustic

     (4th)  Ancylis badiana

     (5th)  - nil -

     (6th)  Oak Processionary

     (7th)  Vapourer (daytime sighting)

     (8th)  Evergestis forficalis, Orange Swift

     (9th)  Flounced Rustic

     (10th)  Sitochroa palealis, Plumed Fan-foot, Gold Spot, Square-spot Rustic

     (11th)  Pandemis corylana

     (12th)  Red Underwing (daytime sighting)

     (13th)  Acleris aspersana, Clifden Nonpareil, Dewick's Plusia, Small Rufous

     (14th)  - nil - 

     (15th)  Acleris rhombana, Pale Eggar, Svensson's Copper Underwing

Pale Eggar, Westcott 15th August

Oak Eggar female, Westcott 3rd August

Oak Eggar female, Westcott 3rd August

Plumed Fan-foot, Westcott 10th August

Clifden Nonpareil, Westcott 13th August

Dewick's Plusia, Westcott 13th August

Bulrush Wainscot, Westcott 2nd August

It certainly lifted the spirits to see that Oak Eggar's face staring up at me from the trap on the morning of 4th August!  She was a bit battered but I don't see the species here very often so this was a very welcome visit, the first in the garden since 2018.  As it happens I also had two females to one of two MV traps run at BBOWT's Leaches Farm site on 13th August which adds another dot to the map along the River Ray catchment, one of its few strongholds in our region. The splendid Plumed Fan-foot on 10th August was even more battered but one doesn't complain about new additions to the site list whatever their condition (macro-moth number 462 here).  The damaged theme continued with the first Clifden Nonpareil of the season which unfortunately had a slightly mal-formed wing but that didn't seem to affect its ability to fly.

The flight period for Figure of Eighty normally comes to an end during the first two weeks of July and this year what I thought would be my final garden visitor turned up on 13th July.  However, on 2nd and 3rd August I had two different fresh individuals to the traps.  A check back through earlier years shows that I've had other August records, including one on the 9th (in 2023), one on the 21st (in 2013) and one on the 24th (in 2016), so it looks as though the moth may sometimes attempt a partial second brood.  It will be interesting to see if any more turn up this year. 

Figure of Eighty, Westcott 2nd August

We have several buddleias in the garden.  They've not flowered anywhere near as profusely as usual (probably thanks to being submerged for a couple of months earlier in the year) and the blooms on the two largest plants are almost over now.  They have attracted very little in the way of lepidoptera to date and the most notable absentee has been Humming-bird Hawk-moth which I've not yet seen anywhere in 2024.  Over the past 20 seasons the average here is 25 sightings annually and it has never missed a year.  There's still time for it to appear because records often go on throughout September, but its absence to date is rather worrying.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks