Acrobasis advenella?

After a long period of nothing new - I got this. I think I had a worn one a few weeks back but this one is in much better condition. Can some confirm this is Acrobasis advenella?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Despite the rain

Two pristine Pretty Chalk Carpets to the house lights tonight (Loosley Row, Bucks).

Nigel

A warmer night

160 moths of 35 species came to the garden trap at Westcott, Bucks last night.  Udea ferrugalis continued its run of regular appearances but the only other item of passing interest was the tortrix below which looks to me to be a candidate for Epinotia cinereana (a species worth keeping an eye out for now that it has been separated from Epinotia nisella).  During the daytime I had a look for leaf-mines on alder just down the road at Woodham, Bucks and brought home several Phyllonorycter mines containing pupae which will hopefully emerge soon.  The most interesting find was a strange-looking 2cm larva which I didn't recognise.  It proved to be that of the Alder Sawfly Eriocampa ovata which is covered with a chalky substance to make it the ultimate in bird-poo mimics!  Dave Wilton   

Epinotia species, Westcott 24th August

Eriocampa ovata larva, Woodham 24th August 

Seeing red

Just a quick walk around the house exterior today, I spotted 3 Red Underwings on the walls. The first image, this one was actively flying around the washing line area of the garden before roosting on the upper part of the house wall. The other two, side by side, were around the far side. I had to hang out of a window to photograph them. It's not often I can equal Mr Wilton's achievements from his house. Peter Hall

Red Underwing

Red Underwings

Old ladies visiting ---

I have had a couple of Old lady moths to my garden trap here in Aylesbury at last - i usually see my first ones a couple of weeks earlier. Also found a Red underwing near Fairford leys shops today, and had a couple more Udea ferrugalis to my trap. Dave Maunder

 

Old Lady moth, 23-8-2014

Pale Eggar

The first new macro-moth for this year's garden list at Westcott, Bucks since Square-spot Rustic nearly two weeks ago turned up last night in the shape of a male Pale Eggar.  Despite supposedly being a common species, in Bucks it has always been restricted to the northern half of the county.  Take away the records from three 'hot-spots' (Bernwood Forest, the Marsh Gibbon RIS trap and my garden!) and there are only a handful of sightings in the county each year nowadays.  This fits with the BC/Rothamsted report "The State of Britain's Larger Moths 2013" which states that it had declined by 90% between 1968 and 2007.

The slightly warmer overnight temperatures (and just a few spots of drizzle in contrast to what was forecast) produced an increase in the actinic trap's catch to 116 moths of 36 species.  Large Yellow Underwing has finally started to wake up here with 20 caught.    Dave Wilton   

Pale Eggar, Westcott 21st August

  

Snail trails.

I found several little folds like this on sapling Populus nigra trees round the car park at College Lake Nature Reserve today. They are the pupation-sites of a small moth called Phyllocnistis unipunctella. The chrysalis inside is 4mm long and looks like this:

The accompanying leaf-mines are difficult to spot, looking as they do like a cross between snail-trails and invisible!

Incidentally, if you collect leaf-mines and want them to emerge as adults, opening up the cocoons, as I have above, reduces your chances of success, as the pupae have very precise procedures for emergence and you may disrupt them; also they may dessicate more easily and die. Also, collect several, as parasitism-rates are often high.
Andy King.

They still fly in the cold!

Despite the very chilly nights I've continued putting the actinic trap out here at Westcott, Bucks to see what turns up.  Monday 18th produced 65 moths of 18 species, Tuesday 19th 42 moths of 14 species and Wednesday 20th 35 moths of 23 species.  Last night's slightly more diverse catch, which included a few geometers as well as the hardier noctuids, came as a bit of a surprise considering that we were close to having a frost (the temperature fell to 4C compared to 7C the previous night).  They comprised Orange Swift, Agriphila straminella, Agriphila tristella, Agriphila selasella, Eudonia mercurella, Emmelina monodactyla, Flame Carpet, Garden Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Brimstone Moth, Willow Beauty, Common Wave, Flame Shoulder, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Six-striped Rustic, Square-spot Rustic, Common Wainscot, Angle Shades, Flounced Rustic & Red Underwing.  Nothing startling!  It will be interesting to see what happens tonight, when it should be warmer but there'll be rain to contend with instead.  Dave Wilton     

Hummed out

Just another Hummingbird Hawk to add to Tom's. Sadly but obligingly from the photographic point of the view, this one was dead. It got into our greenhouse without anyone noticing and died of whatever it is that kills butterflies and moths in greenhouses without marking them. Heat, I guess. I've never seen one still before and it's also a garden first for me here and in Leeds (though neighbours there had them there from time to time and it seems almost common in these parts).  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon.

Autumnal Rustics

Getting a good flow of the autumnal Rustics to my garden trap now, including Square-spot, Six-striped, Flounced and second-brood Vine's rustic, also a few Small square-spot, and had my second Bulrush wainscot Tuesday morning. Also had a second brood Heart and dart. Dave Maunder

Small square-spot, Six-striped rustic, Square-spot rustc

Bulrush wainscot, female

Heart and dart

Gold Spot help please

Hi, I trap moths in my garden in Cheddington, Bucks and have just joined your group. I wondered if someone can help me with the ID of a few moths we trapped last week. I don't think we have caught them before.
The first one we thought might be a Rusty-dot Pearl but it doesn't seem quite the right shape, the wings look more pointed and the tip of the abdomen is showing.

The second we had as a Gold Spot until we realised that there was the possibility of Lemke's Gold Spot - I wondered if it was possible to distinguish between them from our photo.

Lastly we caught a Crambidae that has me puzzled. The cilia were metallic although it doesn't show very well on the photo.

Any help would be great,
thanks, Lynne

Vine's Rustic? and question re when to trap

From last night - I had two greyer looking Rustics - I've not had any Rustic / Uncertains for a while - are these 2nd generation Vine's Rustics?

Re when to trap - I know temperature, cloud cover, lack of wind and moon are best - does cloud cover for example outweigh temperature?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Unseasonal

Freshly emerged Buff-tip on Sunday evening to garden trap amongst an increasingly small pile of dross. Noticed that my friend Ross Newham in Kent also had a Poplar Lutestring the other night in Kent, so it seems our warm summer has tempted a few usually single brooded species to have another go. Marc Botham, Benson

Hummer

Hummingbird Hawk moth discovered outside my front door on Buddleia.  Tom Stevenson

and another one

This was on my wall last week

Peter Hall

...and talking of Red Underwings,

I had a walk around the house here at Westcott, Bucks this afternoon to see if I could find one and actually managed to track down three.  They usually sit high up on the walls, as in the first picture (which shows one at rest on the brickwork above a first floor window), but the other two were lower down by our garage.  For Adam's benefit, the pictures do serve to illustrate the variability of the forewing markings although the overall grainy appearance is constant.  Dave Wilton

Red Underwings, Westcott 18th August

 

Six Striped Rustic? (and Yellow Underwing Observations)

First up, what I hope is a Six Striped Rustic.

Re Dave's comment on Yellow Underwings - over the past few months I've had one Least Yellow Underwing, a few Lesser Yellow Underwings and Broad Bordered Yellow Underwings and alot of Large Yellow Underwings - however so far this season the most common has been the Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

300 Up, Cat Problems and Possible Rarity

I've been away on holiday and have come back to find that my garden mothing has certainly gone down a gear: whilst my garden is never big on numbers the last few nights I've barely caught 20 moths. Still I'm working away with what I got and subject to confirmation on some of the ID's below I've finally managed to reach 300 on my garden moth list - far from the giddy heights of Dave Wilton's 800+ total but I've pleased to have achieved this milestone.

One of the factors that may be contributing to my low counts is our new kitten which is going through that phase of chasing moths and butterflies. As she can now go out at night she hangs around the moth trap picking off the moths as they arrive. On a couple of recent occasions she's brought in a Large Yellow Underwing which is usual beyond rescuing by this point.

On the ID front I've got a couple: the first I think is Acleris Laterana judging by the pointed apex and slight concave feel to the termen. The second when I first saw it I thought was a Red Underwing but the kitten started nosing around the egg cartons and it flew off. However on closer inspection of the photograph the next day the strong double-pointed outer central crossband looks to be spot on for Rosy Underwing which I think would be quite a rarity though I know that the rarity status of moths can change rather quickly.

Adam Hartley

Acleris laterana

Rosy Underwing?

Westcott, Bucks

Last night's catch of 209 moths of 61 species here in the garden at Westcott was a slight improvement over recent sessions although it was still a relatively poor return and included little of interest.  Agriphila tristella, Flame Shoulder and Small Square-spot (which is continuing its climb back out of a 'bust' towards another 'boom') were providing the highest numbers, tied at 25 each.  Like others, I've started getting the occasional Agriphila geniculea now, joining the more prolific grass moths, but almost all of the other 'new' species are still second broods of those seen earlier in the year.  Square-spot Rustic has barely started yet but will no doubt explode into action very soon, while Large Yellow Underwing has as usual been only ticking over and should also increase in activity.  Lesser Yellow Underwing has made surprisingly few appearances to date and hopefully will also increase.  Even though the night-time forecasts for the next week don't seem at all promising, it can only be a few days before Centre-barred Sallow puts in an appearance then things should start looking up as the other autumnal species begin to fly.   Dave Wilton

Grass Veneers

After the recent posts about Grass Veneers i looked a bit closer at mine and i found a one that looks good for Agriphila selasella, but would like confirmation please. Ive had a couple of Agriphila geniculea too. Also a new moth for me, hopefully its an Oak Nycteoline. Campion, Lychnis, Lychnis, Campion dilemma again, think i have Campion here.
Darren Seaman, Milton Keynes.

 Agriphila selasella?

Possible Oak Nycteoline?

Campion

Confirmation / IDs please (catch 13-8-2014)

A few I'd like to check up on.

First two hopefully straightforward are both Agrphila genicula

The next perhaps Blastodacna hellerella?

The next perhaps a worn Acrobasis advenella?

The final two I picked out of the Flounced Rustics - maybe just another variation of that species?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Moth related

I've been seeing some of these flies lately on our flowering Marjoram, I think it's a Tachinid, Nowickia ferox. From reading about it's lifecycle it appears to be a parasite of Dark Arches larva.

Nigel

Holtspur again

Like my local woodland, chalk downland is producing equally poor results if another survey visit to our Holtspur Bottom reserve near Beaconsfield, Bucks last night is anything to go by.  Even though the moon was hidden behind clouds for almost all of the three hours that I was there, the combined effort of two MV lights brought in only 36 macro species and 30 micro species.  A couple of Plutella xylostella in each trap was the only suggestion of migrant activity (it is the same in the garden here at Westcott although I'm getting Udea ferrugalis instead of xylostella each night at the moment).  The only other moths worthy of mention at Holtspur were washed-out examples of Mocha and Tree-lichen Beauty although both have already been recorded at the site this year.  Dave Wilton

Mocha, Holtspur Bottom 13th August

Tree-lichen Beauty, Holtspur Bottom 13th August

Amersham Moth

After poor results in the garden trap of late, I was very pleased to see a Hummingbird Hawk-moth at buddleia in the garden of Amersham Museum today.

Posting Issues (3)

I've just uploaded and installed a zillion updates (well, 16) and uploading photos seems to have been restored under Explorer, so I am assuming one of the updates was a fix with the issue with IE11 and Windows 7. Peter Hall

More poor results -

As with Dave Wilton, my Aylesbury garden moth trap is bringing in less and less over the last week, but i did pick up a couple of year firsts last night, Bulrush wainscot and Six-striped rustic amoungst the usual Square-spot rustics. Willow beauty is gradually increasing, but not in any good numbers so far. Dave Maunder

Six-striped rustic and Square-spot rustic, 12-8-2014

Female Bulrush wainscot, 12-8-2014

Poor results

The last three nights have produced very poor returns in the garden trap at Westcott, Bucks thanks to the weather (and that rather large full moon).  On Saturday 9th I got 60 species, including the tortrix Cacoecimorpha pronubana which looks like yet another dull brown job when at rest but produces bright orange hind-wings when provoked into action.  The wind and rain of Sunday 10th brought a grand total of 18 species, none of which were new for the year, while last night's collection was only a little better at 27 species.  I did pay particular attention to the grass moths, though, and found amongst the numbers of Agriphila tristella an example of Agriphila selasella.  The latter is easily missed (and must be very under-recorded in Bucks as there are only around 20 records) so it is worth keeping an eye out for.  There's a very useful guide to separating the two species here: 
http://www.northumberlandmoths.org.uk/files/idtips/selasella%20-%20tristella%20ii.jpg

Last night I ran two traps in some woodland near Barton Hartshorn, Bucks for three hours and got about 50 species but, as with the garden trap, numbers were depressed and there was little of particular interest apart from a single Dingy Shell which seemed rather late.  However, a check of the county records shows that this date equals the latest Bucks sighting (from 1990).

This afternoon at Westcott I was pleased to find a Red Underwing flying around our massive willow in the front garden and managed to grab a quick picture when it settled briefly on the fence.  They're often active in the daytime here and can sometimes be found sunning themselves on the walls of the house, working their way round it as the sun moves from one side to the other.

Dave Wilton 

Agriphila selasella, Westcott 11th August

Red Underwing, Westcott 12th August

Autumn blues...

It's now feeling very autumnal, and our catches in Wolvercote, Oxon, have fallen in numbers accordingly - on the 10th, we had 36 individuals of 17 species. Accordingly, there haven't been many mysteries in recent nights, but I post one, from 7th August, below: the only guess we can make is that it might be a Straw Underwing, but it doesn't entirely seem to fit. Any thoughts? Steve and Xander Goddard.

Possible Straw Underwing, 7/8/14

Possible Straw Underwing, 7/8/14

Square Spot Rustic?

Caught last night - seems to be different from the Small Square Spot I caught a few days back.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Posting issues (2)

I understand that Peter's posting problem has also been suffered by at least one other member of this blog so it would be useful to get to the bottom of it.  I use Explorer (with Windows 8.1) and I've not yet had a problem with uploading pictures (the image below was used just to check out the situation).  If anyone else has had problems uploading pictures, please let us know.  Dave Wilton

 



Caloptilia populetorum, Finemere Wood 7th August

Posting Issues

I was trying to upload some images onto the Ceredigion blog site today and it wouldn't let me attach any. I could upload and write text, but when I went to add an image it froze out. Trying a message on this blog the same issue arose. I think it must be a recent MS Explorer update. To solve the issue I have had to download another web browser, this time Firefox and it worked fine using that. Peter Hall

I.d help needed, please!

I found this very worn moth up on the rifle range above great Kimble this afternoon, and was hoping it might be a faded Chalk carpet (or maybe just a Shaded broad-bar?). Any advice would be gratefully received! I don't know if Chalk carpet is found commonly in the Chilterns or not. Dave Maunder

Possible Chalk carpet