Micro confusion

 Hi there,

I'm confused by a very small micro that chose to fly onto my jumper while I was sat in the garden at about 5.00pm last night. It is no more than 6-7mm long. So I'm thinking E. immundana or R. naevana, but I guess it could be a small specimen of Z. isertana or C. splendana.

I told you I was confused!! Here it is - any help welcomed:

Large Nutmeg

 Bit late to say the least. Maybe a second brood? 

 

 

Garsington, Oxford.

New Acleris for me?

Stoke Goldington, North Bucks, 3rd Oct

There are not many micros about at the moment, so any that turn up tend to get a closer grilling than usual. Initially glanced over as E. postvittana, on closer scrutiny I think this could be Acleris rhrombana, which would be a garden first.

The unusually marked Vine's Rustic IS, after dissection, Vine's Rustic.

 I thought I should update you all - Peter dissected this for me - the costal indent on the very well defined cross line clearly CAN occur in Vine's Rustic. I wonder how common this feature is and re-attach the same photo!

Might some readers look through their Vine's Rustic photos to see how frequently this occurs?

Robin

Westcott, Bucks

A few more species have been added to the garden list over the past ten days, reducing to single digits the number of macro species still expected to appear this year:

     (28th)  Brick

     (29th)  Acleris sparsana

     (30th)  Merveille du Jour

       (1st)  Feathered Thorn

      (2nd)  Red-line Quaker

      (3rd)  Figure of Eight, Autumnal Rustic

The only unexpected visitor amongst those above was Autumnal Rustic which is a completely new moth for the garden (macro no. 460).  The Atlas shows quite clearly the lack of records in NW Bucks, although I did get one rather unexpectedly in Bernwood Forest two years ago (not yet mapped) so perhaps its fortunes locally are improving.  The specimen below was on the small side and rather worn but the moth must be right at the end of its flight period now.

Autumnal Rustic, Westcott 3rd October

Despite reasonable conditions, migrants over this period have been few and far between at Westcott.  The only one worthy of note was this very pink Vestal on 1st October:

Vestal, Westcott 1st October

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

Clifden Nonpareil wings

I was heartbroken to see these wings on the patio. Obviously it was warm enough for bats to find a meal again. Do dead moths count for recording purposes on iRecord?

Janice, Milton Keynes

Is this a Pinion-streaked Snout?

I found this small moth in my garden trap this morning. I think it must be a Pinion-streaked Snout. The size and shape certainly seem correct.

In addition, could I just double-check that this micro below is Plutella porrectella?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Marvellous as ever

I'm playing Snap with you, Dave: the Merveille made its debut here last night in a notably green lot of visitors - I think a Red-green Carpet bottom left rather than an Autumn Green, plus a Hawthorn Shieldbug. The Pine Carpet below came the night before and I continue to be overwhelmed by Box moths, though I don't know of any box near to our garden. I can't help feeling that they've expanded their diet though the various internet sources suggest not. Does anyone have any evidence on this?  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

 
 

Finemere Wood, Bucks

A three-hour trapping session in Finemere Wood last night produced a reasonable selection of seasonal species, including my first examples this year of Figure of Eight (14) and Merveille du Jour (3). 

Merveille du Jour, Finemere Wood 30th September

Amongst the other species seen were another late Yellow-tail and three Pine Carpets which included the nicely marked specimen below.

Pine Carpet, Finemere Wood 30th September

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks

A micro for ID please

 I think that this, which came to my MV light last night, is probably Ypsolopha vitella, rather than a dull sequella, but the date seems rather late for the former.

Thanks

Phil

Ancylosis oblitella from July

Back on the 10th July I posted a picture of this moth.

It was suggested it could be a Delplanqueia species. However, Peter has now checked it for me and I can report it is male Ancylosis oblitella. Steve Trigg, Cookham

Late Six-spot Burnets

Jan Haseler has sent what she describes as "an appalling picture taken with shaking hands on a mobile phone of a moth on a flower blowing in the wind"! Despite these constraints, the photo clearly shows one of at least 11 Six-spot Burnets that Jan saw at Corner Field at Moor Copse reserve on 25 September.

Late Six-spot Burnet - photo by Jan Haseler

This is the latest ever record for Berkshire; the next latest one was on 3 September, in 2021 from Martin Corley, and otherwise the Berks records run up to 17 August. 

Looking at the records on iRecord there was one also reported on the same 25 Sept date this year in West Lancashire. But it's certainly an unusual occurrence.

Berkshire county moth checklists again - another update for micro-moths

The other day I posted a link to the Berks Moth Group resources page, from where you can download the updated checklists of Berkshire macro- and micro-moths. I was aware that the micro-moth list was incomplete, because of the species listed in Brian Baker's 1994 book that have never made their way onto the county database (the macros were added some time ago but we never completed the micros).

So I started going through the book to add any missing species to the checklist, expecting to find no more than a dozen or so additions. But I had completely under-estimated just how many species had been recorded in 'historic' times but not more recently.

I've now added all the Baker species to a new version of the micro-moth checklist, and this has taken us from the previous total of 991 micro species (of which 75 species had not been seen in the 21st century) up to 1,086 species (of which 168 species have not so far been seen in the 21st century). If you had already downloaded the 24 September version of the checklist please discard that, and use the 27 September version instead.

The additions include some migrant species that were seen once over a hundred years ago and never again (e.g. Evergestis extimalis, Marbled Yellow Pearl), and some smaller and harder-to-recognise species that were recorded occasionally in the past but seem to have dropped off the radar. An example of the latter is Elachista luticomella, Yellow-headed Dwarf, which was recorded eight times between the late 1800s and 1985 but not since, although it is a widespread species that could well survive in the county.

This has been an eye-opening exercise, and I wish I had done it years ago! The challenge now is to see how many of the 'missing' 168 species we can find again.

Evergestis extimalis (from the Netherlands, not from Berkshire!).
Photo by Bj.schoenmakers via Wikimedia.
Recorded once in Berkshire, at Bradfield, around year 1900.

Coleophora lassella

 In my last batch of moths checked by Peter there was a Coleophora lassella. The moth was caught in my garden light trap back in July. It looks to me as if it is quite a good record although I don't know how many records there are from the region. 

Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.

Further late broods

A couple of moths which sometimes undergo partial second broods.  Seen in Bernwood Forest last night (25th September) was Lozotaeniodes formosana which occasionally appears again at this time of year.  Similar late sightings for Bucks were reported in 2006 and 2018. 

Lozotaeniodes formosana, Bernwood 25th September

Rosy Footman also produces an occasional second generation and this year sightings were made in Bernwood on both 16th and 25th September.

Rosy Footman, Bernwood 16th September

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks 

 

Another Clancy's Rustic in the garden trap

 Another male this morning. 

Westcott, Bucks

Now that the autumn species have started flying in earnest, Sunday night's moth count in the garden (261 moths of 40 species) was fairly typical of current catches.  Lunar Underwing accounted for 75 of them, while Black Rustic (46) and Large Yellow Underwing (37) provided the other high counts.  New arrivals for the year-list over the past ten nights have slowed considerably:

     (16th)  Beaded Chestnut, Blair's Shoulder-knot

     (18th)  L-album Wainscot

     (19th)  Barred Sallow

     (21st)  Green-brindled Crescent

     (24th)  Pine Carpet, Dusky-lemon Sallow

L-album Wainscot, Westcott 18th September

Green-brindled Crescent, Westcott 21st September

Dusky-lemon Sallow, Westcott 24th September

Apart from the new arrivals there hasn't been a great deal of interest over this period.  A melanic example of Cydalima perspectalis appeared on the 16th (only the second I've seen here of that form).  Unlike some other gardens in our three counties this moth has yet to become a nuisance around my traps although it is certainly appearing much more frequently now (yet another singleton appeared here last night, 25th).  A late Yellow-tail turned up on the 16th and, as expected, there have been further visits from Clifden Nonpareil (including a pair in the same trap on the 20th) with the garden total for 2023 now standing at six individuals.  The year's second example of Buttoned Snout turned up at a lit window on the 21st while another Pinion-streaked Snout visited the trap on the 24th along with a male Vapourer.    

Cydalima perspectalis, Westcott 16th September

Yellow-tail, Westcott 16th September

Vapourer, Westcott 24th September

Migrants have been few and far between over this period.  Several species are currently around in exceptional numbers even this far inland but the only one to have reached Westcott is Delicate which has now achieved double figures in the garden since the first this year on 25th June.  This could be another Mythimna species in the process of becoming established in the southern UK, following in the footsteps of  White-point and L-album Wainscot.     

There are actually very few new species left now which could be added to this year's garden list.  The only macro-moths which I can guarantee to get which haven't already been seen are December Moth, Spruce Carpet, November Moth, Pale November Moth, Feathered Thorn, Scarce Umber, Figure of Eight, Sprawler, Red-line Quaker, Yellow-line Quaker, Brick & Merveille du Jour.  There are one or two other possibilities like Autumnal Moth or Northern Winter Moth which are occasional autumn sightings here, while Oak Rustic also springs to mind (it appeared in November 2019 but hasn't been seen since), but anything else will be down to luck.  We're still in peak migrant season, of course, and you never know what long-distance travellers might yet turn up, which is why it is worth persevering even though the season is winding down.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks      

Convolvulus Hawk-moth

 Bad photos because I decided just to take night shots and then let it go away from the trap. Amazingly docile to start with, I guess it was a bit cold. Quite noisy when it got flying.

Getting to see quite alot of Delicates, I've had singletons for the past month or so, two the night before last. I'd only had one single siting before in 2019.

No Clifden Nonpareil so far this year.

 

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Berkshire county moth checklists

Updated checklists for macro- and micro-moths in VC22 Berkshire are now available on the BMG resources page. The all-time species list currently stands at 653 macro-moth species and 991 micro-moth species.

Or at least that's what I think the totals are! It's taken a while to sort out the updates, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that they are out of date already - we've already had four macro-moth species added to the list in 2023 (Portland Ribbon Wave, Banded Pine Carpet, Alder Kitten, Plumed Fan-foot). If you spot any errors or omissions please let me know.

Thanks to John Thacker for assistance with record verification, Les Finch for checking and correcting the macro-moth list, and everyone else who had provided advice or sent in one or more records. These updates are part of the ongoing work across our three counties towards an update of the records for the Upper Thames online moth atlas.

L-album Wainscot in Cookham

Following on from Robin's post earlier this month reporting L-album Wainscot in Denham, 3 L-album Wainscots were in my garden trap this morning here in Cookham.

Steve Trigg, Cookham