Marlow Bottom 26/8

Nothing as exciting as a Beautiful Marbled in my trap! The only migrant was Udea ferrugalis. I did have an example of Argyresthia semitestacella, which was new for my garden (unless overlooked as albistria in the past). It was nice and fresh and a bit of a monster at 7mm length compared to albistria - it doesn't look dissimilar to Mark Griffith's photo posted a few days ago.

One of John Clough's Marlow Jersey Tigers made it my way - only my second here, but just up the road! I also had my largest ever count of Whitepoint, with six in the trap, so presumably well established locally. One was particularly fresh looking.

Contra to Dave Wilton's grass moth experience, Agriphila geniculea was the commonest moth in the trap, with 34 individuals, with just the single Agriphila tristella. Otherwise, out of the 51 species trapped, most were the usual suspects, though Centre-barred Sallow was new for the year.

 

 

I did have a small micro, c3-3.5mm length, that evaded the pot and so has been lost, but may be identifiable based on a poor record shot. It's posture was elevated slightly on the front legs - comments welcomed.

Adam Bassett

Beautiful Marbled

I had this moth last night (26th) in my trap at Beenham Berkshire, which I believe is a Beautiful Marbled. Not one that I have had before.

I also had my first garden Jersey Tiger - so rather a good night!

Clifden Nonpareils are flying

This is one of four fresh individuals seen in an Oxfordshire woodland on Saturday night 24th. Two were at wine ropes, two were at one of three Robinson MVs I was running. We are now in double figures for VC23 but the others were all singles at scattered sites. There are numerous large Black Poplars and it is almost certainly resident there.

Few migrants about at the moment but a Hummingbird Hawk-moth was feeding on our buddleja at 5.50 am on Saturday morning. It was barely light and the temperature 11C.

Jersey Tiger f. lutescens

There were 11 Jersey Tigers in and around my actinic light trap this morning, including one of the lutescens form.

John Clough, Marlow

Dark Crimson Underwing?

This one made it past the bat patrol last night.
A Dark Crimson Underwing I think.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon,

Agriphila latistria

Having been away for more than a week, ran my actinic in my East Oxford back garden last night, and caught up with the recent news on the Upper Thames Moths Blogspot. Dave Wilton's recent entry suggesting it is worth keeping an eye out for Agriphila latistria turned out to be prophetic, when one appeared around midnight - the first record for my garden. Otherwise, good numbers, but pretty standard late August species, with Large Yellow Underwing in first big numbers for the year (38 - I have the feeling it will go much higher!)

Agriphila latistria, Oxford, 25 August 2019

Hawks more

Following Dave's mention of second brood Elephant Hawks in a comment on my last post, here are some of last night's guests here. Like being back in June!  Interesting that one of the Elephant Hawks is already a little worn.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon.

Cydia amplana

Martin Albertini and I made another of our monthly trapping visits to Littleworth Common, Bucks last night.  There was little in the way of interest from heathland moths and the most numerous species were Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Square-spot Rustic and White-point, both in the traps and when seen by torchlight feeding from the heather flowers.  Cypress Pug, Jersey Tiger and Oak Processionary stood out from the crowd, but perhaps the best was an example of Cydia amplana.  A rare sighting in Bucks (this is only the third record), it may have been a migrant but there have been suggestions that the moth is now established in the south-east of the UK.

Cydia amplana, Littleworth Common 23rd August

I had hoped that we might see Neglected Rustic which ought to be present on site, having had it on the much smaller area of heathland in Burnham Beeches just up the road, but this visit was perhaps a week or so too early for it.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Tineid sp?

I found the micro below in my lounge last night and am not sure what it is.  It seems similar to some of the clothes moth species e.g. Niditinea fuscella, but seems a bit too large at 9mm in length.  I would appreciate comments on its ID.

Adam Bassett
Marlow Bottom

Hawks again

I thought that I had seen the last of the noble and plentiful hawk moths, with a few tattered arrivals a couple of weeks ago, but this morning's trap furnished this very spick-and-span Poplar, presumably second generation?  Btw, just briefly straying on to butterflies, I had a wonderful morning among the Adonis and Chalkhill Blues at Yoesden Bank in the Chilterns on Tuesday - a top Bank Holiday outing, maybe? Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

New at the Museum

A light in the farmyard at my place of work last night added a couple of new species for the site with Canary-shouldered Thorn and Vestal (annoyingly couldn't get a photo).

Also for my year list, Six-striped Rustic, Mouse Moth and Acleris variegana.

Dave Morris
Chalfont St Giles

Westcott, Bucks

Although moth numbers have picked up over the past couple of nights thanks to the overnight minimum temperature being a degree or two warmer (402 moths of 62 species last night, for example), there has still been little of interest in the garden.  Only three nights out of the past eight have produced anything new for the year-list:

(15th)  Square-spot Rustic
(17th)  Bactra lancealana, August Thorn, Six-striped Rustic, Nutmeg
(21st)  Agriphila geniculea, Pale Eggar, Frosted Orange

Agriphila geniculea, Westcott 21st August

Frosted Orange, Westcott 21st August

I've had a dozen different "grass moth" species here and Agriphila geniculea is actually one of the less common ones (if I get 15 or 20 in a season I'm doing really well).  Another one to look out for now is Agriphila latistria with its broad white band running right through to the termen.  It is not at all common in our area but has appeared twice in the garden during the last week of August, once in 2016 and once in 2018.  Frosted Orange was the first appearance here by one of the autumn-coloured moths and I expect Centre-barred Sallow any day now to indicate that summer really is over!  I would have added a photo of the Pale Eggar, a regular here, but the individual on the 21st had dived into dew-drenched grass near the trap (presumably to escape the local bats) and as a result lost a lot of scales.  I'm sure to get another.    

Numbers of Large Yellow Underwing are increasing quite rapidly (50 last night) and it has now overtaken Setaceous Hebrew Character, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and Vine's Rustic as the most numerous macro, but they're still out-numbered by the micro Agriphila tristella (62 last night).  Square-spot Rustic is appearing nightly but only in single-digit counts and has yet to take off properly.  I've also had one or two Small Square-spots over the past few nights but that is a moth of "peaks and troughs" here and I doubt if a resurgence is underway yet.  The last peak was in 2016 when I had 864 here during the year.  2017 produced 344, 2018 just 29 and I suspect there'll be even fewer this year before a recovery sets in.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Which carpet?

The moth shown below settled on a window near my actinic light trap on 21 August. Please would someone help me with ID? Thanks.

John Clough, Marlow

Argyresthia semitestacella?

Not a great photo, this one is at the edge of my camera's capabilities and my eyesight. Not sure even out of the pot I can get a much better photo but I'm hoping it's sufficiently distinctive to ID...it's been suggested that this is Argyresthia semitestacella.

Mark Griffiths, Garsinton, Oxford.

Couple of micros

Still chugging along in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire; nothing very exciting happening, but a couple of micros have given me pause for thought the last couple of nights. The first, about 7mm long, couold possibly be a Tineid of some sort, but doesn't quite look right; the second, which I didn't get a chance to measure, looks as though it should be fairly distinctive, but I can't manage to place it. As ever, all suggestions gratefully received.

Unknown micro, 20/8/19

Unknown micro, 21/8/19

Steve Goddard

Mocha

Mocha found in West Oxford. Is that something anyone else has seen - I've not previously?

Little and Large

We seem to be getting a few sub-standard individuals again, as happened last summer.  These two Six-striped Rustics came to the garden trap last night and the smaller one has a wing length of only 13.5mm.

Six-striped Rustics, Westcott 20th August

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Pug

At last a Pug I can identify and be fairly confident - new for me and my garden

a Cypress Pug.

Exit the Old Ladies

Like the ones in the charabanc on the left, the Old Ladies of Bridge 227 in Kidlington have gone. I've been meaning to bike down the canal for ages and finally did today. I don't know if anyone else has been recently and has a better idea of how long they may have stayed. As you can see below, I hope, Jon's suggestion that they had found fissures in the wonky stonework and built up from that base looks correct.  Thanks again for a fascinating find. Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Lesser Treble-bar?

Not a particularly stongly marked or great photo but I think this is a Lesser Treble-bar. It was a female so no help from an underneath shot.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Possible Agriphila selasella, and a tiny micro

In my garden, Agriphila tristella is still quite numerous, but geniculea is beginning to take over. I try and keep an eye open for any selasella candidates, and think I may have 2, photographed below. I think the first one in particular looks a possibility.

In last night's garden trap, I also found this very small micro (fw length just 3.5mm). Can anyone suggest what it might be?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

New species for the garden and for me

Many others on this blog have been seeing these two quite regularly, but they're new arrivals for me.

This Tree-lichen Beauty was a first for my garden (Great Kimble) on 2 August, a moth I've only seen once or twice before (outside the Upper Thames area).

And last night's list of about 50 species from the trap included Gypsy Moth (male), a species I've never encountered before, alongside repeats of a few other recent garden arrivals such as Jersey Tiger and White-point.

Possible White-point?

I had to go over last night's garden catch in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, in the shelter of a shed, as a very heavy shower intervened, so light conditions for photos weren't great. I had a couple of individuals which were on the Clay/White-point borderline, and only got a halfway decent photo of one of them, included below. My sense is that it looks more like a White-point - the 'speck' doesn't look especially tear-like, and the patterning looks similar to the illustration of the White-point in the Bible. I'm grateful for any thoughts.

Possible White-point, 17/8/19

Steve Goddard

Two moths to check identifications

Any advice on the below appreciated:

 A) is this Aptomis turbidana?

 and is this White Line Snout? 

Thanks

Barnaby Briggs, Iver

Micro from this week

After a couple of weeks in Greece (where our accommodation didn't prove to be very moth trap-friendly), I've run my actinic trap in my garden in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire on a couple of non-rainy nights this week, with not terribly much to show for it, though a Purple Bar on the 14th was a relatively nice garden record. The micro below looks like some form of Cydia, but I can't place what: it was distinctly short at about 7mm - as ever, all suggestions very welcome.

Unknown micro, 14/8/19

Steve Goddard

Pyrausta purpuralis

I ran a couple of traps at Homefield Wood near Marlow, Bucks on Thursday evening.  There weren't many moths at all but the usual suspects did turn up, including Oncocera semirubella, Mocha, Pretty Chalk Carpet & Clouded Magpie, along with a year-first Six-striped Rustic.

While checking the hind-wings (as I'm sure you all do...) to separate Pyrausta purpuralis from Pyrausta aurata, I found the odd-looking purpuralis shown below.

Pyrausta purpuralis, Homefield Wood 15th August

Pyrausta purpuralis, Homefield Wood 15th August

This is not the first time I've seen an aberrant form of this moth and a more extreme example from 2014, illustrated below, springs immediately to mind.

Pyrausta purpuralis, Bernwood Meadows 14th May 2014

Pyrausta purpuralis, Bernwood Meadows 14th May 2014

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks   

Foxglove Pug?

Size (FW about 8.5 mm) and timing (14 August) suggest that this could be a Toadflax Pug, but the small indentation on the outer part of the central crossband near to the costa suggest Foxglove Pug.  The Field Guide (WTL) suggests there is sometimes a partial second generation for the Foxglove Pug. Grateful for any advice.

John Thacker 

Harwell, Oxon

ID help appreciated.

My best guess, one of the Pyralidae?

Alan Diver

Tackley.

Westcott, Bucks

Well, that was quite an uninspiring seven days, although to be fair it was actually to be expected during this period in August when little usually happens.  Last night's catch of 274 moths of 57 species was fairly typical.  Adult moth additions to the garden year-list won't take long to cover:    

(8th)    Bucculatrix ulmella, Acleris cristana
(9th)    nil
(10th)  Narrow-winged Pug
(11th)  Cacoecimorpha pronubana
(12th)  nil
(13th)  nil
(14th)  nil

The list currently stands at 555 species for the year but that includes the leaf-mines discovered over the past week.  For adult moths the count is 542 (296 macros).

Numbers of Setaceous Hebrew Character are rising again and it has joined Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing at the top of the list of most numerous macros each night.  However, both of them are being outdone by the grass moth Agriphila tristella (a count of 70 last night is fairly typical).  I had a late Elephant Hawk-moth on the 11th, while a fresh Waved Black on the 12th might suggest a second brood.  Although not a year first, a very smart female Dark Spinach last night was only the fourth garden record for this supposedly common species (...as for Spinach, I haven't seen that here since 2007!).

Acleris cristana, Westcott 8th August 

Dark Spinach, Westcott 14th August

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks      

Gelechia nigra?

Gelechia nigra?

Alan diver

Tackley.