Help with IDs please

Good morning, I've flicked through Chris Manley but can't find either of these micro moths, can anyone help please. Many thanks!

21 species in Chorleywood.

With everybody in stay-at-home mode right now there's every chance lots of garden records will be broken this year.
There were 21 species in my trap last night, including nice examples of Frosted Green, Brindled Beauty, Purple Thorn, Least Black Arches, Oak Nycteoline and Streamer.
Chestnuts are still hanging on, I see.

Two micros turned up, one a rather striking version of Acleris cristana, (I don't know the name of this one, but apparently there are around 130 named forms of this species - the most variable moth of all British moths.)

The other micro I have not yet identified. At first glance I thought of Leek Moth, which would have been new for the garden, - but now I don't think so. 

One new-for-the-garden did turn up earlier this week, but not at a light: I found the larval/pupal case of a Taleporia tubulosa on a Hornbeam trunk. After searching for them in nearby Philipshill Wood (on Beech trees), I'm pretty sure they are last year's models - for something made out of silk and algae they are surprisingly tough. 

(This is an old pic from last year). 

Early doors

Like many no doubt, the combination of lock-down and decent weather means I have been trapping a fair bit in the garden lately. Nothing sensational here in Sonning, Berks, but a few early-ish records of mild interest, including Brimstone Moth and what I think is Brindled Pug ab Hirschkei on 5th April, and Least Black Arches and Lunar Marbled Brown on 8th April. Also now catching plenty of what I believe are Dyseriocrania subpurpurella. Corrections welcome if needed!

 Brindled Pug ab Hirschkei

 Lunar Marbled Brown

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella

Sunny and frosty

Thanks to Andrew, I had no problem identifying a new moth for the year in this morning's trap: this Frosted Green. This first came to me in May 2016 and has been a regular caller in subsequent Springs but I need the reminder as to what it was.

An interesting feature of last night's arrivals was how many chose to stay outside the trap and perch instead on a nearby window and wall:

I was also interested to note at 6.30pm that three Brindled Beauties and one Streamer  (off camera below) were exactly as I had left them on the wall 12 hours earlier. It's a quiet life, being a moth! Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Moth-trap by-catch

This year I've been getting significant numbers of the caddis-fly Stenophylax permistus in the moth-traps.  I often get it early in the year, my earliest ever being on 4th January 2013 (confirmed by Dr Ian Wallace of the Trichoptera Recording Scheme) although it normally doesn't appear until late-March.  This year the first appeared on 16th March and up until last night I'd had 28 in all, far more than usual.

Stenophylax permistus, Westcott 9th April

The moth trap has also produced the year's first few examples of what I would have recorded as the ichneumon Ophion scutellaris based on its very long antennae.  A parasite of over-wintering noctuid larvae, it has now been split into two species (scutellaris and wuestneii) both of which fly in the spring.  Thus, just like Ophion obscuratus which has also now been split into at least two and probably three species, recording any of these nocturnal ichneumons on sight is now virtually impossible without very close examination!

Ophion sp., Westcott 9th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks 

Emperors again

The last time I reared Emperor Moths was in 2017 (something I'd done annually since 2006) and I still have a few unhatched pupae remaining from that final batch.  Two males emerged over lunchtime today.  Here they are inside the mesh cage they've been kept in for the last three winters.

Emperor Moths, Westcott 10th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Carpatolechia decorella?

This little moth was in my trap last night.  I think it must be a Carpatolechia decorella in which case it's a new species for this site.  Comments appreciated.  Sorry about the photo - best I can get with my phone.

Richard Ellis
Chorleywood

Back from the Wilderness!

For the last few years I've more or less "phased" or whatever the mothing equivalent of this birding term for giving up is. However the present lockdown has encouraged me to dust off the moth trap and have a go again. I've soon been reminded why I gave up: my urban garden just doesn't get very much compared to other locations. So far in three trappings I've had a few each of Early Grey, Common Quaker, Hebrew Character, Double-striped Pug, along with one Brindled Beauty and one a Twenty-plume. I did get one other Pug which I'd overlooked initially. To be honest I was never much good at Pugs in the first place and what little I knew then I've now forgotten but when going through my photos I think it might be a candidate for Oak Tree Pug rather than Brindled as it has a wide prominent discal spot with a pale area beyond it. Unfortunately I didn't measure it. Some expert thoughts on it would be much appreciated.

Adam Hartley, central Oxford

Possible Oak Tree Pug?

Unidentified challenge

From the very few moths last night, one that has left me puzzled.

Any help appreciated.

Barnaby Briggs, Iver, Bucks

Emperor in Cookham

I put my Emperor Moth lure out in the garden late yesterday afternoon, and at 5pm a male arrived and danced around the garden for quite a few minutes without ever landing. However, I did manage to get a few decent pictures, using a very fast shutter speed on the camera. Here is one of them.

Male Emperor Moth at lure

Steve Trigg, Cookham

A garden first in Longwick

I know to many this will be common but the oak tree three doors away finally gave up a Frosted Green this morning. It has only taken twenty years! Just shows how greater effort pulls in the less populated species! Now for that Yellow Horned!

Yesterday delivered my first Pale Pinion in a while whilst also adding another first - Leek Moth. Hopefully unconnected to the fact I planted leek seeds in the garden for the first time on Saturday (groan).

Getting better

It's lovely butterfly weather at the moment, with Orange Tops newly emerged here to join the Brimstones, Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells; and the moths are getting more varied too.  Last night brought a Herald, a Muslin and lots of Brindled Beauties. I wonder why this one, below, chose to sleep with its wings pitched butterfly-style?  Any thoughts?

Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Westcott, Bucks

Numbers over the past week have been lower than expected and that bright moon and constant bat activity haven't helped.  However, new species have continued to appear in the garden here.  Adult moths added to the list so far this month have comprised Streamer (1st), Mompha subbistrigella, Emperor Moth & Brindled Beauty (all 3rd), Acleris literana (4th), Oak Nycteoline (5th) and Engrailed, Spectacle & Herald (all 7th), taking me past 50 species for the year.  The Spectacle is my earliest by nine days although the late George Higgs holds the record for Bucks with one on 2nd April 1998.

Spectacle, Westcott 7th April

Active yesterday afternoon was this mid-instar caterpillar of Dingy Footman (8mm in length), found browsing on lichens on our wooden garden fence.

Dingy Footman caterpillar, Westcott 7th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
 

Able to post but unable to comment?

hi, as said I'm able to post but unable to comment.

I have multiple blogger IDs but I think "Mark Griffiths" is the default. When I come to the main page it shows me as logged out, I log in and it picks up the "Mark Griffiths" blogger ID. I can then post.

However if I then go to view the blog I get logged out. I log back in and I see the "back" of the blog where you can post, edit or delete.

If I want to comment right now I can't do it because it logs me out. The option for posting ID is "Google Account" (which in theory should be ok as I'm in the default Mark Griffiths google account")

Any ideas?

Garden 1st

The trap was quite poor last night with only 12 moths of 9 species. However, this included a first for me and my garden, a White-marked.

New for year were Aphomia sociella and Barred Hook-tip.

Also, this caterpillar had snuck in.  Any ideas what species it is? It's c20mm long.

Adam Bassett
Marlow Bottom

Marlow Bottom awakens

As I've said before, I am an erratic trapper, but the lockdown has enabled me to put the trap on more regularly.  My first trap of the year was April 2nd and have done two more since, with the milder night of April 5th being the most productive.

Out of three traps (2nd, 4th and 5th), I have had 61 moths of 22 species:

Caloptilia semifascia (2 5th), Diurnia fagella (2nd), Agonopterix arenella (2nd), Amblyptilia acanthadactyla (3 5th), Emmelina monodactyla (2 5th), Frosted Green (4th), Streamer (2 5th), Double-striped Pug (3), Brindled Pug (9), Oak-tree Pug (5th), Brindled Beauty (4), Oak Beauty (5th), Engrailed (2), Lunar Marbled Brown (5th), Nut-tree Tussock (4th), Early Grey (5th), Chestnut (2), Dotted Chestnut (5th), Satellite (2), Clouded Drab (4th), Common Quaker (2), Small Quaker (9), Hebrew Character (8).

Adam Bassett
Marlow Bottom

Picking up in Longwick too

As my local area consists of gardens, a few shade trees and distant hedgerows I tend to do rather poorly early and late in the season but last night certainly improved. I trapped 3 Double striped Pug, 6 Common Quaker, 2 Hebrew Character, Clouded Drab, Brindled Beauty, 2 Early Thorn, 2 Common Plume, 2 Beautiful Plume, Small Quaker, Twin-spotted Quaker, White shouldered House moth and what I assume were 2 Brindled Pug. The one pictured shows white around the discal spot but the spot appears too long to be Oak Tree Pug I think?

Tineola bisselliella

Still very poor catches here, I've yet to see a Clouded Drab. However this is a new one for me, Tineolla bisselliella (I think). About 5-6mm.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Least Black Arches

This Least Black Arches which I found on the outside of the trap last night seems very early.

Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield

Busiest trap so far

I have been trapping unspectacularly at intervals since January but last night was the first of any real warmth, and results. These included Streamer, Nut-tree Tussock and March Moth along side the trio below, on which I would much appreciate help. I think the first is Acleris literana and the second looks closest to Summer Fruit Tortrix to my inexpert eye, but is probably too early. As for pugs...

Apologies for the porr quality of the photos.

By the way, one effect of the lockdown has been my belated discovery of iRecord which has finally solved my long-standing recording logjam. I spent ages creating a chronological list of moths which I've sent to the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre and have put on the Records page of my own blog; but iRecord (as recommended by Dave and approved by Martin T) is just the ticket - and very handy for 'slow' local walks as our daily exercise, which we and neighbours are using to build up a wider local plant and wildlife survey.

Hope everyone is keeping snug and well.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

A warmer night brings results

On Tuesday night the temperature fell to -2°C, and I only caught four moths in total, representing three species. The weather forecast for last night was for clear skies with a cloud-bearing front approaching by dawn: the clear skies would allow the temperature to fall to 1°C.  What actually happened was that the cloud arrived much earlier than forecast, and consequently the temperature only fell to 6°C.

I had a pleasant surprise when I emptied the traps this morning, perhaps as a result of the unexpectedly warm night.

I ended up with a total of 37 moths of 13 species between my two traps (one with an actinic light; the other with LED). Five of those species were new for the garden - that doesn't mean a great deal as I only have records from 2019.  Pride of place will go to a Dotted Chestnut, albeit looking a little ragged.

Dotted Chestnut, Newton Longville 2nd April

The other new species for the garden list were Brindled Beauty, Early Thorn, Shoulder Stripe and Double-striped Pug.

Shoulder Stripe, Newton Longville 2nd April

It seems as though we're in for a warm spell, so this is promising.

Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks

Emperor Moth

Even though it is still quite early yet for the species, I've been trying the Emperor Moth pheromone lure in the garden on and off for the last week and finally had success this afternoon with two males turning up.  One performed a brief fly-by at 3.30pm then returned 15 minutes later to be netted, while the second arrived at 4.05pm.  Afternoons are generally best and if anyone else has the lure then the tropical conditions forecast for Sunday would seem to be a good opportunity to try it out.  The moth is quite widespread throughout our three counties.

Emperor Moth, Westcott 3rd April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

First Quarter Results

First quarter garden results are always a mixed bag, very much dependent on the winter weather.  In April 2015 I produced a table of adult macro-moths recorded during the first three months of each year going back to 2006 in order to give a ten-year comparison and to work out how many species would be missed if trapping didn't start here until 1st April (quite a few people don't bother to run their lights during January, February or March).  Micro-moths were ignored because there are so few of them around and Diurnea fagella & Tortricodes alternella are really the only ones which aren't hibernators.  I concluded then that only four adult macro species would definitely be missed (Small Brindled Beauty, Pale Brindled Beauty, Spring Usher & Early Moth) because all of the others either continued flying well into April and/or appeared again in the autumn.  In fact the flight times for Pale Brindled Beauty and Spring Usher seem subsequently to have crept forward and there's now often a chance to see them in December, while Early Moth is just as likely to appear at a lit window as it is to come to a light trap.  I'm certainly not advocating packing away the trap for those first three months each year but I can understand why some people do!

I've continued to update the figures annually since then and have just done so quickly for 2020.  This year's results proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. The total number of individual macro-moths caught came to 405 which is rather below par.  However, 28 macro species were seen, drawn from a cumulative total of 46 which have been recorded here during the first quarter.  28 is actually the third highest total over the now 15-year run of data.  The average currently stands at 561 moths of 23 species.  If anyone is at all interested in looking at the details, the information is available on two sheets of a Google document here.      

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

April starts on a positive note

Good, the wind has at last gone round to the west, signalling warmer nights.  Ten species pitched up to the actinic light last night and it was good to see Emmelina monodactyla, Shoulder Stripe, Streamer & Red Chestnut in addition to the usual fleet of Orthosias.  New for the garden year-list, Streamer can be a really stunning moth when fresh (there are very few species with a hint of blue in their colouring).  



Shoulder Stripe, Westcott 1st April

Streamer, Westcott 1st April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Rather early micro

Found in our conservatory at midday, Ditula angustiorana.  Usually flying mid May-August, but field guide does note that 'has been recorded in April'.   

 








John Thacker, Harwell