Making the most of the weather

If only this warm spell had come in July.  By the beginning of September the number of active moth species has usually fallen off a cliff so this period has really been a waste of excellent night-time temperatures!  Still, one has to make do with what one gets and on Thursday night I made a last-minute decision to venture out and make my monthly visit to BBOWT's Yoesden Bank near Radnage, Bucks.  I took just two traps, a 15w synergetic Heath and a 125w MV Robinson, and surprisingly the former out-performed the latter.  70 species were recorded altogether but there was little of note, although it was good to see nine examples of Argyresthia semitestacella and four of Hedge Rustic (the latter not a common species in Bucks).  Large Yellow Underwing, Square-spot Rustic & Common Wainscot provided the highest counts.

Hedge Rustic male, Yoesden Bank 7th September

Hedge Rustic female, Yoesden Bank 7th September

Last night (8th September) I was joined once again by Martin Albertini and Neil Fletcher, this time at BBOWT's Grangelands reserve near Princes Risborough, Bucks.  Here we managed over 100 species between us although again there wasn't a great deal of particular interest.  Antler Moth was good to see, while species to be expected now that Summer is over included Brindled Green, Black Rustic, Brown-spot Pinion, Barred Sallow, Centre-barred Sallow & Autumnal Rustic (as well as one more Hedge Rustic).  Migrants comprised Plutella xylostella, Cydia amplana, Udea ferrugalis and yet another Delicate, of which Cydia amplana (a rather worn example) is a good record for Bucks with sightings still in single digits.

Autumnal Rustic, Grangelands 8th September

Cydia amplana, Grangelands 8th September

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Possibly off-topic, but any ideas...

 I would appreciate any suggestions for what is responsible for this! These appear every year, and I have never managed to pin down what they are. Essentially it appears to be a very fine (invisible to my eyes) silken thread with a dead cedar needle hanging from the end, as if weighting it down. There are number of these hanging from the ends of the lower branches of a large Atlas Cedar in my garden. In the past I have assumed that the needle suspended from the thread was there by accident, but there are so many all the same that this really cannot be the case. I am reminded of the silken thread that Yponomeuta sp. use to escape danger, so assume it may be similar, but I have never seen any larvae of any kind anywhere near, so perhaps something entirely different---maybe not even a moth?

The only "insect-like" object I have found nearby is this, which may have nothing to do with the threads and which is also a complete mystery!

Small moths

 I ran my traps at home on the night of 6th September for the first time in six weeks as a result of being away in France for a month.  The warm night resulted in a good catch: 368 moths of about 53 species.  A few aspects are worth mentioning.

Every so often, I find in my trap a moth which is of smaller than normal size for its species: I expect we all do.  However, on Wednesday night an unusual number of such cases was present.  I recall small versions of Frosted Orange, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Garden Carpet and Turnip Moth (plus a fifth example, but I forgot to note which one!).  There are a couple of examples below, using composite images to compare them with normal-sized individuals caught on the same night.  In the case of the Setaceous Hebrew Character, I took two consecutive images at the same distance from the subject, using a prime lens on the tripod-mounted camera.

Frosted Orange
Newton Longville, 6th September

Setaceous Hebrew Character
Newton Longville, 6th September

There were a couple of very late Ingrailed Clay, one with slightly-deformed wings.  This is the normal one:

Ingrailed Clay
Newton Longville 6/9/23

I had three new-for-the-garden species.  One is a technicality: a Svensson's Copper Underwing.  Previously I have recorded the copper underwings as the aggregate, having only twice examined active individuals to check the hindwings: these were both Amphipyra pyramidea and the experience was too traumatic to repeat on non-anaesthetised moths.  For the first time, I anaesthetised all four Amphipyra individuals caight that night and checked the hindwings of all of them.  Three were A. pyramidea, but one (also a smallish individual) was A. berbera, so goes onto the garden list as a new species.  The other two new-for-the-garden were Epinotia nisella and Nephopterix angustella.

Nephopterix angustella
Newton Longville, 6th September

I am left with two mysterious macros.  The first is about the size of a Pearly Underwing, but the very eliptical shape of the "oval" stigma doesn't seem right.  The second has the greyish tone, peppery appearance and the size of a Vine's Rustic.  I suspect it is in the Xestia genus, but the central area of the wing doesn't match anything I can find.  The hindwing was essentially plain.  It might even be yet another version of Square-spotted Rustic.

Mystery 1

Mystery 2

Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks

Treehopper

 In a fairly full but unexciting trap on 8th was this weird insect. It is Ledra aurita, a treehopper. It does not appear to have an English name so I hereby name it 'Mouse-eared Treehopper'. My thanks go to Martin Harvey for identifying it. 

Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield

Cypress Pug

 A first for me in MV trap last night

Heathland trapping

Martin Albertini, Neil Fletcher and I trapped at Stoke Common, Bucks on Monday night (4th), mainly to check up on the only established colony of Heath Rustic in the county.  Sure enough, two individuals came to light, as did good numbers of Neglected Rustic (in both colour forms) and True Lover's Knot which are also heathland specialists.  More than 90 moth species were recorded altogether and other macro-moths of interest included Oak Lutestring, Pine Carpet, Cypress Pug, Oak Processionary, Jersey Tiger, Antler Moth, Hedge Rustic, Clifden Nonpareil (which unfortunately suffered wing damage from  an angry Hornet in the trap) and a late Blackneck.  As you'd expect at this time of year, there were not that many micro-moths around but it was good to see Agonopterix nervosa, Aristotelia ericinella, Agriphila inquinatella & Dioryctria simplicella.    

Agonopterix nervosa, Stoke Common 4th September

Agriphila inquinatella, Stoke Common 4th September

Heath Rustic, Stoke Common 4th September

Neglected Rustic, Stoke Common 4th September

Clifden Nonpareil, Stoke Common 4th September

Last night (6th) the three of us visited similar habitat at nearby Black Park, a site that hasn't been trapped properly for well over a decade.  Although there was no sign of Heath Rustic, the restored heathland there produced even better numbers of Neglected Rustic (this time 80+ individuals) and a double-digit count of True Lover's Knot.  With similar species numbers to the Stoke Common total, Oak Lutestring, Cypress Pug, Oak Processionary, Jersey Tiger & Clifden Nonpareil were again amongst the other macros.  A fully-grown caterpillar of Fox Moth wandered up to one of the traps, while a couple of early examples of Brindled Green suggested that the mothing season may be drawing to a close!  On this very warm night it was migrant species which made a noticeable impact in our notebooks, with Vestal (6) and singletons of Delicate and Pearly Underwing being shared between the lights.  As at Stoke Common, micros were in relatively short supply but a single example of the fern-loving antipodean crambid Musotima nitidalis was a very nice record for Bucks.

Oak Lutestring, Black Park 6th September

True Lover's Knot, Black Park 6th September

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks        

D-Day in Merton too.... plus a query

 On the night of 5th Sept, another very worn Delicate arrived in my garden trap in Merton, accompanied by my first ever Dewick's Plusia and a moth I feel I should know but can't place, unless it's a form of Yellow Shell?

A few micros

 A few micros from last night.

The second looks like a Leucoptera species. About 3mm in length. I would guess that laburnella is the most likely but I am not sure.

The first Nemapogon clematella is a new garden record.

The third Scrobipalpa ocellatella is the first this year. Is it still necessary to have specimens checked after the numbers recorded in 2022?

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Westcott, Bucks

Even though the garden year-list is now well past 600 species, I doubt that 700 will be achieved in 2023.  We were away for just over a week at the end of August as well as the first couple of days of September so there was a gap of nearly two weeks in garden trapping, but the following have been added to the year-list since the last report in mid-August:

     (17th)  Clavigesta purdeyi

     (18th)  Agriphila geniculea, Oak Processionary

     (19th)  Vestal

     (20th)  Pammene populana, Cypress Pug

     (2nd)   Hellinsia carphodactyla, Pale Eggar, Centre-barred Sallow, Feathered Gothic

     (3rd)    Epinotia ramella, Frosted Orange

     (5th)    Acleris rhombana, Four-spotted Footman, Beautiful Marbled

Hellinsia carphodactyla, Westcott 2nd September

Epinotia ramella, Westcott 3rd September

Four-spotted Footman, Westcott 5th September

Beautiful Marbled, Westcott 5th September

Noticeable since we returned was a significant reduction in nightly catches, a change to autumnal species and Large Yellow Underwing is now providing the highest counts (anywhere between 50 and 100 each night).  Hellinsia carphodactyla (2nd) was Westcott's 14th plume species.  It is the sixth completely new addition for the site in 2023 and takes the garden moth list to 1,071 species.  Epinotia ramella (3rd) is generally restricted to woodland locally but it has made occasional appearances in the garden although this was the first since 2018.   

Last night (5th) brought some migrant activity with Plutella xylostella and Dark Sword-grass in addition to the two nice macros illustrated above.  Hopefully there will be more to come over the next few warm nights.  

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

grey Yponomeuta

 Not sure that I can get any further with this one but it was quite grey and the spots very small compared with other ermines in the same haul from 2 September in Oxford. Same size as the others that I recorded as orchard/apple. Any thoughts welcome. Andrew

Beet Moth?

Not very good images I'm afraid, and unfortunately it departed before I could pot it up, but based on last year's experience I believe this is a Beet Moth Scrobipalpa ocellatella, in my MV trap last night. There don't seem to be any records on iRecord for 2023 though... 

However, no doubts about the identity of this one!

Worminghall, Bucks Update

The garden moth year list is now on 432 with several highlights below from the last couple of weeks.

Dark Crimson Underwing with Red Underwing 

A few more migrants appearing recently with Delicate (above) and Vestal (below) 

A couple to check. Closest I can get is Brown Mompha, Mompha miscella? (above) and Maple Midget, Phyllonorycter acerfoliella ?  (below) 

and a nice fresh Gold Spot 

Yponomeutidae

 Can size difference help narrow down these Yponomeutidae?

Came to garden in Tackley 20 Aug.

Alan Diver

D-Day!

 Delicate (NFG) and Dewick's Plusia (2nd record) to MV last night. The Plusia was caught in exactly the same part of the garden as the first a couple of years ago, so perhaps breeding here?

Delicate, Stowe 

Dewick's Plusia , Stowe

Square-spotted Clay?

Is this a candidate for Square-spotted Clay, which I believe would be a good record for North Bucks. Came to actinic light last night:

Cloaked carpet

Cloaked carpet?

Tackley SP483204

20 August

Alan Diver

 

Queries from end of August

 These two moths were in my  garden trap in Merton on 31st August. Sorry the photos aren't great. I think the first may be a Pinion-streaked Snout?  The second might be Cochylis molliculana, or hybridella, or.... ?

(Neo)cochylis dubitana?

 I think this is (Neo)cochylis dubitana? White face, black thorax. Caught 24/8/2023.

 

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Mental Block

 This little tortrix-like chap in North Buck appears to have reasonably distinct markings, but I'm struggling to assign an Id.