Final questions from Monday

One more pug and another micro. Pug - maybe Brindled?
The micro is 6mm in length. I had originally thought it might be Dyseriocrania subpurpurella but the antennae seem rather short and it seems to have a spot on the wing at about 3/4.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

A pug and a micro

In the huge catch (for me) of 32 pugs of 4 species this one eluded identification. The shape of the forewing doesn't seem to fit with anything that is likely.

The identification of this tiny (5mm f/w) micro was also beyond me. The photo has been lightened to show the markings more clearly.

Help will be appreciated.

Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield, Bucks

Westcott, Bucks

The garden list for 2019 keeps going from strength to strength.  On the 19th I added Currant Pug, on the 20th Frosted Green, Brimstone Moth, Waved Umber & Least Black Arches, while on the 21st Pseudoswammerdamia combinella, Mompha subbistrigella, Purple Thorn & Chocolate-tip.  Last night was the best of the year to date with 9 micro and 29 macro species altogether, of which 14 were new for the year:  Elachista apicipunctella, Phtheochroa rugosana, Argyrotaenia ljungiana, Epinotia immundana, Cnephasia sp, Pyrausta aurata, Alucita hexadactyla, Spruce Carpet, Brindled Pug (at last!), Seraphim, Sallow Kitten, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Pebble Prominent & Pale Prominent.

Phtheochroa rugosana, Westcott 22nd April

Argyrotaenia ljungiana, Westcott 22nd April

Seraphim, Westcott 22nd April

Sallow Kitten, Westcott 22nd April

The Cnephasia will almost certainly be communana which is usually the first to appear here but, continuing the trend of ever earlier emergences, I've not previously had an April record for any Cnephasia.  The garden list is currently 33 species ahead of what I'd seen by 22nd April 2018.  It is now only a handful short of 100 for the year, which wasn't achieved until 7th May last year, so most things seem to be a good two weeks earlier than usual at the moment.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Pug and micros

I could do with some assistance with the following from last night.

I wondered if this could be a melanic Brindled Pug?

4mm in length

4mm in length. Unfortunately got squashed in processing.

5.5mm in length.

Having had a dearth of micros eight species new for the year turned up last night!

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Emperor Moth

I tried my Emperor Moth lure at Decoy Heath, Berks, this morning and saw 3 moths. Two were fairly fleeting fly-byes (as seems to be the norm with the lure) but one did land nearby and allowed some photos.

Silver Cloud?

More cloud and and a slightly higher temperature resulted in a better catch last night including what I think must be a Silver Cloud. I know they have been recorded just over the border in Warwickshire but don't know the current situation in the Upper Thames region.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon,

More at the museum

Rob Payne and I left lights at COAM over night.

A few new for year species were Purple Thorn, Scorched Carpet, Acleris literana, Adela reaumurella, V Pug, Oak Tree Pug, Common Pug, Tinea trinotella, Red Green Carpet, Grapholita jungiella and my second lifer in two days at my workplace with this Latticed Heath...

Dave Morris
Chalfont St Giles

Pugs and a Caddis

From last night's catch a couple of pugs for advice and also what I assume is a Caddis with very distinctive markings.

Both pugs had a wingspan of approx. 20mm. The Caddis was 18mm in length excluding the antennae.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Faded Blossom Underwing?

Is it possible to put an i.d. on this faded specimen?. Haven't had an Blossom Underwing before so it's
a bit of a guess.

Steve Lockey (Garsington)

Easter treat

Like Gordon, I had a Chocolate-tip visit for Easter.

Alan Diver

Tackley

21/22 April

Early appearances

No very big catches yet in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire (the nights aren't really being very warm, despite the daytime temperatures),  but a tendency, as others have noticed, for species to appear somewhat early. Some good examples last night: it's always good to see Brimstone, but the two which showed up last night, along with Pale Tussock and Shuttle-shaped Dart, are considerably earlier this year than in 2018, when all three first appeared in May.

Brimstone Moth, 20/4/19

Pale Tussock (male), 20/4/19

Shuttle-shaped Dart, 20/4/19

Steve Goddard

Away-days in Bucks

I've now had reasonable first sessions at two of the four or five away sites I'll be trapping at regularly this year.  Pavis Wood (owned by Bucks County Council) is now managed as part of the Wildlife Trust's Dancersend complex and a three-hour stint there with four MV lights on Friday evening produced 30 species.  There was nothing particularly unexpected although Scarce Prominent is always a good record, while Acleris literana and Dotted Chestnut may be new to Dancersend's already extensive moth list.  Lunar Marbled Brown (36) was the most abundant species while Alucita hexadactyla, Waved Umber, Pebble Prominent & Least Black Arches were new to me for the year.

Last night Marc Botham and Martin Harvey joined me at Grangelands near Cadsden, another former BCC reserve now managed by BBOWT.  This is a sensitive site, not only because it is an important SSSI but also because, being so close to Chequers, there's a need to keep the police informed of any strange goings-on at night!  Here the list came closer to 50 species from five 125w MV lights and one 15w actinic, with Micropterix tunbergella, Pyrausta aurata, Barred Hook-tip, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Common Carpet, Spruce Carpet, Dwarf Pug, Yellow-barred Brindle, Brimstone Moth, Scalloped Hazel, Square Spot, Iron Prominent, Lobster Moth, Orange Footman & Small Purple-barred being amongst those I hadn't recorded yet this year.


Barred Hook-tip, Grangelands 20th April

Lobster Moth, Grangelands 20th April

Orange Footman, Grangelands 20th April

Square Spot was a nice find.  Although there are quite a few records for Bucks (70+), in my experience it is quite an uncommon species limited mostly to the Chilterns.  It was good to see Scarce Prominent here too, as well as my first Dingy Skipper of the year which happened to wander onto Martin's equipment at packing-up time.  However, perhaps the most interesting catch of the evening was the tiny Micropterix tunbergella, two examples of moth No.1 on the British list coming to the actinic trap (Martin's picture below).

Micropterix tunbergella, Grangelands 20th April

As seems to be happening regularly now, some of the species seen were very early emergences.  For example, in Bucks there is only one previous April record for Small Purple-barred and that was on the 30th (in 2011).

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Museum Lifer!

Whilst setting up a trap to run overnight at the museum, this flew by. Rob Payne had a convenient lure to hand so we managed to attract it back, although it didn't land.

Only ever seen by myself as a caterpillar or a captive-bred adult before, so a wild adult lifer for me!

Dave Morris
Chalfont St Giles

The battle of the greens

These Green Longhorns (Adela reaumurella) kept disturbing this Green Hairstreak by allowing their erratic bouncing flight to come too close to the butterfly as they danced round a Whitebeam coming into leaf. When the butterfly flew off it looked huge compared to the moths.

Museum Moths

Left a light on at the museum last night. Not a huge haul, but new for the year were Lesser Swallow Prominent, Lunar Marbled Brown, Frosted Green, Agonopteryx heracliana and Waved Umber.

Also if anyone can suggest what this might be (flew off before I could pot it)...

Dave Morris
Chalfont St Giles.

Red-green carpet?

Thought I'd better check as I'm not sure.

As well as this one, I've been getting Streamers, Brindled Beauties. a Nut Tree Tussock, all new to me since this is the first Spring that I've been moth trapping.

Jacqui
Speen, Bucks 

Pug and Brown

I might have your Brindled pug, Dave, but I

have been awry with my pugs before.

Lovely Lunar marbled brown.

Alan Diver

Tackley

Chocolate-tip for Easter

After a pretty barren run of moths over the past two weeks with the Robinson at home and assorted traps at Linford Lakes Nature Reserve a couple of days ago, on cue for Easter, this lovely Chocolate-tip appeared.

Then on the 17th this finely antennaed Incurvaria masculella  

and the 18th Grapholita jungiella.

I hope the micros are correctly identified and, yes, things are indeed on the move

Slowly but surely

It is always a slow improvement in April but new species are now starting to appear in the garden trap.  Following that smart Herald on the 15th, I've had Semioscopis steinkellneriana, Common Pug & Swallow Prominent (all 16th), Aphomia sociella, Chinese Character, Brindled Beauty & Muslin Moth (all 17th) and then Scorched Carpet (18th).

Semioscopis steinkellneriana, Westcott 16th April

Common Pug, Westcott 16th April

Scorched Carpet, Westcott 18th April

Semioscopis steinkellneriana has only visited the garden twice before (in 2007 and 2015) so that's a good site record although it is a regular in local woodland at this time of year.  Common Pug beats my earliest sighting by three days and it is interesting that I've still not had Brindled Pug in the garden yet this year.  Its time will come, I'm sure! 

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Mystery visitor

Currently trapless we had a strange visitor yesterday.

Something flew to some bluebells in the garden, mid afternoon, hovered around them for a few seconds than just took off at speed.

I think it was most like a Hummingbird Hawkmoth - but smaller, a sandy brown. I didn't get much impression of the body so it wasn't a HB Hawk. Too sandy brown for a Silver Y.

I'm pretty sure it was a moth, not sure what else it would be though.  Any ideas?

Edit: for clarity I don't think it was a bee fly. They don't fly the same way. The first thing you notice about a beed fly is the body - it didn't have a body like a bee fly. It had wings like a moth - sandy brown.

Mark griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Kitchen micro

I found this micro flying around the kitchen yesterday.

The forewing length is 7mm. Any suggestions as to what it might be would be most appreciated.

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Not so Scarce

Another visit to a different part of Bernwood Forest last night produced eight examples of my target species, Scarce Prominent.  While the trap wasn't exactly over-endowed with moths during the usual three-hour stint, amongst the other 17 species caught were Scalloped Hook-tip and Early Tooth-striped.

Scarce Prominent, Bernwood Forest 17th April

Scalloped Hook-tip, Bernwood Forest 17th April

Early Tooth-striped, Bernwood Forest 17th April

Earlier in the day I'd been attempting unsuccessfully to get an Emperor Moth record for the area of VC24 around Colnbrook, just west of Heathrow Airport, but I did find half a dozen early examples of Adela reaumurella dancing around above a field maple.

Adela reaumurella female, near Colnbrook 17th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Early Moths

Things have been a bit quiet here in Beenham Berks over the last few weeks. However I've had a few early species recently. On Monday night a had a Bright-line Brown-eye (my first ever in April) and last night I had my earliest Pale Mottled Willow and Shuttle-shaped Dart. Hopefully some more will turn up over the next few nights.

You can't see me...

I trapped for a few hours in Bernwood Forest last night but got only 20 species, with Frosted Green (56) the most numerous.  Although definitely on the way out, the various Quakers were still present but there was little new to replace them with as yet, Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, Epinotia immundana, Brindled Pug and Great Prominent being the only species new to me for the year.  Things will no doubt improve as this week progresses.

You can't see me...

Great Prominent, Bernwood Forest 15th April

Back at home the warmer night didn't seem to make a great deal of difference to the number of moths around but a smart Herald brightened up the catch in the garden actinic which otherwise consisted of a Streamer and the usual bunch of Orthosias.

Herald, Westcott 15th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks