Westcott, Bucks

Even though the number of individual moths continues to increase thanks to Heart and Dart, Dark Arches and the Hoplodrinas, recent species counts in the garden trap here have been nowhere near as high as they were on the 23rd, with between 60 and 70 appearing over the past three nights.  However, new examples for the garden year list have continued to trickle in, including Privet Hawk-moth & Scarce Footman (24th), Small Emerald & Peppered Moth (25th) and Yponomeuta evonymella, Mompha ochraceella, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Cabbage Moth, Double Lobed & Dun-bar (26th).  I've now caught up with most of the common hawk-moths, only Lime and Humming-bird having failed to put in appearances here yet.  The latter will hopefully be seen quite soon now that the garden buddleias are coming into bloom.  Dave Wilton

Double Lobed, Westcott 26th June

White Satin

Seeing some nice moths on the site today - here's one from me which I nearly missed as it was on the translucent funnel of the trap.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Leopard Moth, and 2 for confirmation

I had my first Leopard Moth in the garden trap earlier this week - what a lovely moth.

I know pugs are a nightmare to id from photos, but I am reasonably confident that this small pug (fw 9mm) is a Green Pug.

Finally, this rather worn macro (fw just under 19mm) may no longer be identifiable, but I thought it might be a Dusky Brocade?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Green and Black (or are those mints?)

I have a fearsome backlog of ID requests which I'm trying to sort, on the grounds that I ought to make some sort of effort before consulting the Sages, but meanwhile I was pleased to find this Blackneck in the cartons this morning, a first for me here. Also what I think is merely a Common Emerald, below, but it was very small. I think it may still be asleep in the shed, so I will hope to measure it later on.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon.

Heathland Moths

Two nights ago (Tuesday 24th) Martin Albertini, Andy King and I trapped on Stoke Common, Bucks as part of on-going invertebrate survey work there.  Heathland with heather is in very short supply in the county and this is certainly the best site we have.  Habitat specialists seen on the night included Anarsia spartiella, Pempelia palumbella, Grass Emerald, True Lover's Knot (which vied with Marbled White Spot for most numerous moth of the evening), Suspected and Beautiful Yellow Underwing.  Barred Red was quite numerous in the traps and the Grass Emerald seemed at first to be an "albino variant" until it was looked at more closely in the light of day!  As happens to many green moths, it had faded with age.  Dave Wilton  

Barred Red & Grass Emerald, Stoke Common 24th June

Two different forms of Suspected, Stoke Common 24th June

Beautiful Yellow Underwing, Stoke Common 24th June

       

Just the one

Now a distinct slow-down in Wolvercote, Oxon, with fewer than 100 individuals last night, including this fairly poorly-marked specimen: an Acleris, I think, and judging by size and season, probably not laterana; therefore perhaps comariana, or is it too poorly-marked to tell? Although we don't grow strawberries (Sterling and Parsons suggest comariana likes them), we do get bog-loving species, so it wouldn't be outlandish. An ulterior motive: it would be a garden first. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Possible Acleris comariana, 25/6/14

Clouded Border and micros for ID/ confirmation

A quieter night last night but I did get another moth which according to the books is not usually found in gardens, a Clouded Border.

Re the micros the first I wonder is yet another form of Scoparia ambigualis, the second might be another form of Aleimma loeflingiana?  The final one is from September 2013 and was ID'd on another site as Eudonia angustea but to me it looks like Scoparia ambigualis?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Gothic and friends

We've had a slight slowdown in numbers (I think - I'm still working my way through our records for the last week or so) in Wolvercote, Oxon, but still some nice creatures coming through (not all of them moths: see below). Like Adam, a mile or so away, we've had a Gothic in the trap last night; though last night really belonged to the Riband Waves, sixteen of which were waiting for us by morning. We've also had the usual crop of uncertain micros: what I think is some sort of Gelechiid, what looks like a Mompha ochraceella, and a couple of unknowns, probably the same species. Confirmations and suggestions gratefully welcomed!

Gothic, 24/6/14

Presumed Gelechiid, 22/6/14

Presumed Mompha ochraceella, 23/6/14

Unknown micro, 23/6/14

Unknown micro, 23/6/14

We also had a gorgeous, huge-looking dragonfly near the trap this morning, though I can't imagine it was attracted by the light: a male Brown Hawker. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Male Brown Hawker, 25/6/14

A Hundred up in the Garden

Last night's garden result at Westcott, Bucks passed the 100 species barrier for the first time in 2014 with 107 species found in and around the trap, although there weren't all that many new arrivals:  Emmetia marginea, Blastodacna hellerella, Acleris variegana, Lozotaenia forsterana, Rhopobota naevana, Catoptria falsella, Yellow-tail, Short-cloaked Moth, Olive & Lunar-spotted Pinion.  As is to be expected at this time of year, Heart and Dart was the most numerous species with 99 counted, although the combined numbers of Hoplodrina (Uncertain and Rustic) are rising steadily now with 50 caught.  Dave Wilton

Confirmations Please

Three from last night - I thought the first was an Orange Footman, but the resting shape isn't right according to Townsend so maybe a Buff Footman? Then a Common Footman I think and finally  Aleimma loeflingiana?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Moth and eggs

I trapped a female Scallop shell at the weekend in the Chilterns, and today she laid me 20+ eggs - will be interesting to rear! Dave Maunder

Small Fan-Foot, odd Heart & Club and some for ID/ Confirmation

Lots of moths last night, including a Swallowtail finally in the trap. Also got what I think is a Small Fan-Foot,  Barred Straw, 1st generation Snout, a dark Heart & Club and then some micros, possibly Hedya orchroleucana,  a Coleophora, albitarsella? (6mm, ringed antennae and white legs) and one I got as far as Phycitinae but could go no further.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

A couple of micros

I would appreciate some help with a few micros please, both caught overnight last night in Aylesbury.

I've recorded a few Eudonia lacustrata lately but I don't think this is one, can anyone shed some light on this please?

Secondly, I have identified this one as Ptycholomoides aeriferanus but I'm really not sure.

Ryan Clark

Clearwing weekend

A nice sunny weekend and finally a bit of free time meant I got chance to go out with my pheromone lures for a bit. I dropped in at the local fruit farm in Wallingford (VC22) and asked for a punnet of strawberries and whether I could also look for moths in the ladies currants. I can't describe the look I got but you can probably imagine. However, that was successful with 5 Currant Clearwings in 5 minutes. I took them to show the lady and got a cheaper punnet of strawberries as a result - a win, win situation, although i suddenly realised I had to make sure the currants weren't to be sprayed in the future when asked how to get rid of them.

This trip to the fruit farm came on the back of a rather surprising find during my butterfly transect at Hill Farm in Little Wittenham (VC22) earlier in the day. I stumbled across the beautiful little tortrix, Commophila aeneana. Listed as 'very local' I don't know how common this stunning species is around this area, but I have never seen it before I don't think.

Commophila aeneana - Little Wittenham

Sunday I went looking for my bogey moth - Hornet Clearwing - again, after several fruitless searches last week. I have now located several trees that have holes and even found a recently emptied pupal case so my hopes were high. These are on the Crowmarsh side of the river so I believe them to be VC23 records. I went down for 8am and finally found an adult just emerged and drying its wings. Fantastic. After this I took a trip to Cothill Fen/Dry Sandford to look for other clearwing species. I had Red-belted Clearwing (Parsonage Moor) to CUL lure, and Red-tipped Clearwing (Dry Sandford) to FOR lure. A very successful weekend despite light traps overnight being fairly poor. Marc Botham, Benson

My first ever adult Hornet Clearwing - Crowmarsh Gifford

Gothic

I had another new garden tick here in central Oxford last night in the form of The Gothic. I also had my first Double-striped Pug for quite a while and another of what I am presuming is Ephestia parasitella (please correct me if I'm wrong). During the day our garden is currently full of Scarlet Tiger Moths as I insisted that my wife didn't remove their food plant (a blue flowering weed) from the garden this spring.

I would like to add that my Micro Moths of Berks. book arrived and it's very useful - I've even successfully managed to sort out a few Scoparids using it. I can thoroughly recommend the book to anyone who's trying to get their head around micros as it goes into much more detail on the moths that it covers than the Sterling, Parsons & Lewington standard. Now if only we had a similar book for local Pugs!

Adam Hartley

presumed Ephestia parasitella

The Gothic

Old log

It may be an old log, Dave, but it still looks good decorated with a nice Lackey moth!
Dave Maunder

Lackey moth, 22-6-2014, Aylesbury

Finally, a few macros

And finally, with apologies (but this should enable us to get up to date), a clutch of macros which either we're not sure on, or, in one case, which we need confirmation on: one of a couple of what I think are Smoky Wainscots from 20th; a presumed, though rather worn, Light Arches from last night; and a complete mystery - also rather worn - from 16th. Hopefully shouldn't be too controversial - many thanks for any help.

Possible Smoky Wainscot, 20/6/14

Possible Smoky Wainscot, 20/6/14

Presumed Light Arches, 21/6/14

Worn unknown, 16/6/14

It turns out I was underestimating how many moths we were getting: on the 13th, I've worked out, we had 207 individuals of 55 species, which compares pretty well with the best we had last summer - we should break 300 individuals at some point, I suspect, but 200+ is not bad for mid-June. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Some very uncertain micros

A few other micros we're not so sure of from Wolvercote, Oxon: what I strongly suspect is an Aphelia paleana from last night; a possible Eucosma lacteana from the previous night, but not very well photographed; a couple I think I've narrowed down to Monopis and Swammerdamia from 20th and 16th respectively, and which might well not be identifiable; and something I can't at all work out (but may well turn out to be a Cnephasia) from 19th. All suggestions very welcome. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Possible Aphelia paleana, 21/6/14

Possible Eucosma lacteana, 20/6/14

Possible Monopis sp., 20/6/14

Possible Swammerdamia sp., 16/6/14

Unknown micro, 19/6/14