Water Carpet

This Water Carpet, last night, was a garden first in Stoke Goldington, North Bucks. Not in the trap, but attracted to the actinic front-door lights before the rain arrived!

Very pale Twin-spot Rustic?

 At first glance thought this might be Powdered Quaker

Westcott, Bucks

After Small Quaker and Red Sword-grass were added to this year's garden list back on the 14th I've now had Mompha subbistrigella & Shoulder Stripe (15th), Oak Nycteoline (16th), Caloptilia stigmatella, Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Twin-spotted Quaker, Early Grey & Chestnut (all 17th), Diurnea fagella & Red Chestnut (18th), Ypsolopha mucronella (19th), Double-striped Pug (20th) and Early Thorn & Tawny Pinion (both 23rd), all to the actinic light, so new arrivals have been turning up very much as expected thanks to the fairly benign conditions - albeit rather windy of late.  The nightly counts have been averaging about 50 individuals, Monday 20th proving to be the best of this period with 68 moths.  Needless to say the most numerous have been Orthosia species, mainly Common Quaker, Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character.

Ypsolopha mucronella in typical resting pose,
Westcott 19th March

Double-striped Pug, Westcott 20th March

Early Thorn, Westcott 23rd March

Tawny Pinion, Westcott 23rd March

Another larval record was added to the list on the 20th when this final instar caterpillar of Large Yellow Underwing was found on the lawn close to the light.

Large Yellow Underwing caterpillar, Westcott 20th March

This year's garden list currently stands at 53 species.  46 of those have been adult moths, meaning that if no more are added before the end of the month this will rank as the garden's fifth best count achieved during the first three months of the year.  The total to beat is 57 adult moth species (achieved in 2021).

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks   

 Mis-read flight period Mike-looks like it is Oak Nycteoline!

 Thanks Mike.Sorry but I couldn’t reply to your comment so doing so through fresh post.

Aha!Looks like one of the Oak Nycteoline variations but flight season all wrong?

Best

Will

Help needed to ID this micro

 

"Drab" antennae

Prompted by John Thacker's recent comment on my posting 'Lead-coloured Drab?', I decided to look more closely at the differences between the antennae of incerta and populeti.

None of the images online seem very clear, so I examined the antenna of a male incerta caught last night, photo below, which seems to show that it has a different structure from populeti—saw-toothed rather than comb-like, with fine hairs on the end of each tooth. Given that the image I posted in my query showed a comb-like structure, albeit with the 'teeth' not quite as long as might be expected, this is consistent with it being populeti, as Dave W had concluded.

    

incerta male

populeti male

                                                                        Original post

I don't imagine I have found anything that is not already known, but I personally found it an instructive exercise!

Bernwood Forest, Bucks

An away trapping session last night, more to give the generators an airing than in the expectation of seeing anything unusual, saw me spend three hours from dusk in Bernwood Forest accompanied by two MV traps.  They produced getting on for 2,000 moths with, very much as expected, Small Quaker out in the lead (1,245 counted, many more seen because as ever they were still arriving in droves as I packed up).  Other species around in good numbers included Yellow Horned (83), Small Brindled Beauty (75) & Oak Beauty (75), while the remainder included Diurnea fagella, Acleris ferrugana/notana, Tortricodes alternella, March Moth, Shoulder Stripe, Brindled Pug, Early Tooth-striped, Spring Usher, Dotted Border, Engrailed, Red Chestnut, Chestnut, Dotted Chestnut, Common Quaker, Lead-coloured Drab, Clouded Drab, Twin-spotted Quaker & Hebrew Character. 

Yellow Horned, Bernwood 17th March

Early Tooth-striped, Bernwood 17th March

Engrailed, Bernwood 17th March

Dotted Chestnut, Bernwood 17th March

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Small Eggar

This delightful but rarely seen little moth is now flying and will be on the wing for the next month.  It is restricted in range in our area, so is a species to look out for if you live in the far north of Bucks or the west of Oxfordshire. 

Small Eggar (male, reared), Westcott 17th March

This was one of five males which emerged here yesterday, resulting from a small batch of caterpillars liberated from a larval web found at the beginning of June last year on a roadside hedgerow north of Olney, Bucks (the second web I've found in that same area over the last few years).  If a female emerges she'll be taken back there.  The records from north Bucks form the western extent of a larger population covering northern Bedfordshire.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks  

Much more worth while putting out the trap last night.

 Drizzle notwithstanding, last night produced 16 species in my actinic trap in Chorleywood. It occurred to me that some of my photos of common, early moths are a dozen years old; so I thought I'd try again, this time without a telephoto lens! 

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla, Small Quaker and Zelleria hepariella respectively. 

Acleris ferrugana / notana

At last some moths! , 65 moths of 11 species to the trap last night, including Yellow Horned and Brindled Pug.  

It helps that I've got a male sallow in flower in the front garden! 

[Edit] Thanks for Dave Wilton for putting me right on these, two Acleris ferrugana/notana which will need dissection to confirm.  (As usual at this time of year, I've forgotten almost everything I ever know about moths!.)

 

Neil Fletcher
Walter's Ash (VC24)

 Hi again!

This turned up last night - one of over 200 moths in the trap - 80% of them Common and Small Quakers!

I can't find anything like this in the books. Acleris shalleriana has the dark splodge in the right place, but surely the shape is all wrong?? Thoughts welcome.

Best wishes

David

Third time lucky

Last year I had the very early-flying tortrix Pammene giganteana to the MOL pheromone lure (actually aimed at Grapholita molesta) in the garden here on 14th March, having been prompted to use the lure after getting one to a light trap in Bernwood Forest four days earlier.  This year I tried the MOL lure in the garden on 12th and 16th March with no results but today a single rather battered male giganteana turned up to the SKI lure (for Grapholita lobarzewskii) in weak sunshine at 1.20pm after the pheromone trap had been outdoors for half an hour.  Last year I also had giganteana to the SUS lure (for Pammene suspectana), so if you have any of those pheromones for Pammene or Grapholita species it is worth trying them now, especially if you are close to mature oaks (the larvae of giganteana feed inside "oak apple" wasp galls).  I should add, though, that there is only one fairly young oak near me and no mature examples within a mile of our garden so it seems that the moth could turn up just about anywhere!

Pammene giganteana, Westcott 17th March

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

Lead-coloured Drab?

 I initially recorded this as Clouded Drab, but on looking at the images later, I wondered whether it is in fact Lead-coloured Drab. The feathering on the antennae seems a bit prominent for the former, but perhaps not prominent enough for the latter? So I'm unsure, but leaning towards populeti.

Phil T

Westcott, Bucks

Following the appearance of Lead-coloured Drab (5th, already mentioned in these pages) there was nothing new for this year's garden list until the 13th when a tiny Nepticulid moth was noticed indoors, running around on the bathroom floor (forewing length not much more than 2mm).  It could be one of a number of look-alikes so determination to species will have to await dissection.  The only adult I've seen previously this early in the year is Stigmella aceris, a couple of which were recorded during February 2019 (again, one of them indoors).

Stigmella species, Westcott 13th March

Last night (14th) was a better one than of late for the actinic light with two new species for the year-list turning up before the temperature dipped below freezing at about 11pm.  The regulars were joined by Small Quaker and a surprise Red Sword-grass:

Red Sword-grass, Westcott 14th March

Red Sword-grass, Westcott 14th March

It is difficult to work out the status of Red Sword-grass in our area because there are so few records of it, although this is the second for the garden here after a pre-hibernation example in November 2021.  It could be a migrant, or perhaps a wanderer from the west of the UK where the species is more widespread, but equally it could be resident at very low density.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks   

Over Wintering Hummingbird Hawk Moth

 Was surprised to find an adult Hummingbird Hawk Moth on my landing window last Thursday. It is the first time I have seen one in the winter

Can't do this one!

 Hi,

Can anyone help to ID this - early August last year, near Chesham.

Many thankjs

David

Mompha check

First moth I have seen this month apart from a few in the car headlights.  This was flying around the house.  I think it is probably a well-marked Mompha subbistrigella although it is maybe a bit on the large size at almost 7mm in length.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon. 

Lead-coloured Drab

Garden moth counts since the beginning of the month have been around half a dozen each time and that's exactly what I got here last night.  Lead-coloured Drab was the first new adult species for the year-list since Oak Beauty on 20th February.  Two of them turned up, while the other four moths comprised Dotted Border (3) & Hebrew Character (1), all of which had arrived by 10pm.

Lead-coloured Drab, Westcott 5th March

Lead-coloured Drab, Westcott 5th March

Neither Lead-coloured Drab was particularly well marked but that's fairly typical for the species.  Both were males so had the most obvious feature to distinguish them from Clouded Drab:  antennae which appear visibly "feathered" to the naked eye.  Other clues are their size as well as the rounded wing-tips (both features similar to Common Quaker).  The lighter specimen at the top also has the hint of some small black wedges in the outer cross-line which can sometimes be quite prominent.   

As yet, the weather is showing little sign of warming up and we seem to be in for another particularly cold patch over the next few days so I'm not expecting much more moth activity until the weekend.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

Unidentified micro

Can anyone help with the ID of this micro please? Taken at Lardon Chase on 2/6/21.

David Hastings

Shoulder-striped Wainscot?

While re-checking the ID of some records I came across this one. Shoulder-striped Wainscot seems possible from the illustration in Waring & Townsend. 

I took the photo on 22/7/2019 at Otmoor. This site seems to meet the SSW's habitat requirements.

Confirmation or other suggestions welcome!

David Hastings

 

Westcott, Bucks

Small Brindled Beauty (19th) and Oak Beauty (20th) were the last adult species added to the garden year-list even though moths have continued to visit in very small numbers since the weather turned chilly again.  However, I have added the two early-instar caterpillars shown below, which take that list to 33 species for 2023:

Common Footman larva, Westcott 22nd February

Old Lady larva, Westcott 26th February

The Common Footman larva (9mm) was walking around on our conservatory windowsill next to the actinic light, while the Old Lady larva (22mm) was found by torchlight, crawling up the side of our garden shed. 

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks  

Light Crimson Underwing

 Unplanned photo 24/07 of my garden

moth of the year 2022

Tortricodes?

Encountered last night in Stoke Goldington, Bucks I am assuming (at least for the time being) that this nicely marked micro is one of  the variants of  Tortricodes alternella?

Ypsolopha mucronella

 Things have been a bit disappointing here over the last few nights with plenty of Pale Brindled Beauty and a few a the commoner spring moths but nothing of note until last night brought in an Ypsolopha mucronella which is a new garden record.

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Loosley Row

A Red-green Carpet to our house lights tonight.

Nigel

Bernwood Forest

I trapped in Bernwood Forest for the usual three hours last night.  Only 10 species were seen with no surprises, the full list comprising just over 360 individuals:  Tortricodes alternella (96), Acleris ferrugana/notana (1), Small Brindled Beauty (73), Pale Brindled Beauty (75), Oak Beauty (3), Spring Usher (93), Dotted Border (3), Chestnut (14), Satellite (5) & Common Quaker (2).

Oak Beauty, Bernwood 18th February

A handful of non-moths came to light as well, including a couple of early nocturnal ichneumon wasps (one of them surprisingly not Ophion obscuratus agg. so that one has been retained) and the ground-hopper Tetrix subulata shown below.  The latter is my earliest record to light - not that I see it very often - but a quick search on-line tells me it can be found throughout the year.

Tetrix subulata, Bernwood 18th February

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Westcott, Bucks

If  new moths continue to arrive at the rate they are at the moment then the garden could be on its way to a record-breaking Spring.  25 adult species have been recorded here so far this year (plus another four as early stages), of which Tortricodes alternella & Satellite (both 15th), Dotted Border & Common Quaker (both 16th), Ypsolopha ustella, Mompha epilobiella & Clouded Drab (all 17th) and Hebrew Character (18th) have turned up since the last report.

Ypsolopha ustella, Westcott 17th February

Tortricodes alternella, Westcott 15th February

Common Quaker, Westcott 16th February

Hebrew Character, Westcott 18th February

The garden Pale Brindled Beauty total for 2023 has now reached 75, surpassing the previous highest count of 65 in 2019.  Amongst the micros, Agonopterix heracliana has been particularly busy of late with a dozen different individuals spread over the past four nights.  I've also had two more Acleris visitors, one bright cristana and one poorly-marked schalleriana, but these two species were recorded here back in January.

Acleris cristana, Westcott 15th February

Acleris schalleriana, Westcott 18th February

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks  

Just checking . . . . .

 I make this Euzophera pinguis. Am I right?

Last August near Chesham - with Ash trees nearby.

Thanks.

David