Second Broods

I've been getting a few second brood Small Blood-vein here in mk, along with the usual autumn species. Deep-brown Dart, Large Ranunculus, Turnip, Lunar Underwing and Rosy Rustic all new this week. Then along comes a Footman, maybe a second brood Scarce Footman? Hind wings look white so getting it checked tomorrow by an expert.

Darren Seaman, Milton Keynes.

Confirmation please?

I've been getting alot of different colour forms of Lunar Underwing - can someone confirm this one that looks a little different is indeed a Lunar Underwing?

Also seeing late broods here, Ruby Tiger, Riband Wave, Shuttle Shaped Dart, Small Dusty Wave, Common Wainscot.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

Second brooders ---

I had a pristine Peppered moth to my garden trap here in Aylesbury on the 18th September, along with a second brood Small Ranunculus and Burnished brass, which quite surprised me as i've never seen a Peppered moth this late before - has anyone ever recorded this species so late before? Plenty of other second brooders include Small dusty wave, Riband wave, Small blood-vein, Heart and dart, Cabbage moth, Carcina quercana and Endotricha flammealis over the last few weeks in my garden, and my first Large Ranunculus yesterday, a day after getting Small ranunculus! Dave Maunder

Second brood Small Ranunculus, Peppered moth and Burnished Brass, 18-9-2014

Vestals

2 Vestals in garden trap this morning. Marc Botham, Benson

Gardens are best

Two nights ago Finemere Wood, Bucks produced a grand total of 14 moths of 12 species to a single trap in three and a half hours.  I was quite pleased to get my first Svensson's Copper Underwing of the year (they seem to be difficult to find this season) but there was absolutely nothing else of interest.  Last night I joined Marc Botham and Mary Elford at Besselsleigh Wood, Oxon (but VC 22) where we managed a little better but barely scraped 30 species between three traps.  Autumnal Rustic and Orange Sallow were nice to see but again there was little else worthy of note.

However, like Marc's garden trap near Benson (see his report below), my actinic trap here at Westcott, Bucks is doing really well at the moment.   Two nights ago it produced 317 moths of 44 species, with Galleria mellonella (Wax Moth) and Beaded Chestnut new for the year, while last night it managed 251 moths of 36 species with Dark Sword-grass and Brindled Green new for the year.  While I couldn't match Marc's migrant Pearly Underwing, I was quite pleased with the pair of Dark Sword-grass which were my first of the year anywhere.  Cabbage Moth was also good to see (not a regular here), while Lunar Underwing has quickly risen to knock Square-spot Rustic off its perch as top dog (counts of 72 and 63 respectively last night).

Dave Wilton

Dark Sword-grass, Westcott 17th September

Brindled Green, Westcott 17th September

Cabbage Moth, Westcott 17th September

    

Blastobasis lacticolella?

Autumn seems here and I'm seeing a few favourites from my very first days of trapping last year, this morning three very smart Brown Spot Pinions and a Black Rustic (plus a fair few crane flies). A few days back Lunar Underwings in dark brown, chestnut and fawn shades.

I also got this which I think is a worn Blastobasis lacticolella, can someone confirm?

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.

A tricky identification

Two nights ago I had a very worn moth in the garden trap. It had some residual markings of a Dotted Rustic but also looked like many other large noctuids and so required a more detailed examination. It turned out to be a worn Dotted Rustic, sadly nothing rarer although this is the only second of this species I had seen, and was swiftly followed by a better marked one the night after accompanied by my first Mallow of the year.

Worn Dotted Rustic - Benson 15th September

Less worn Dotted Rustic - Benson 16th September

The garden trap has been doing fairly well unlike my experiences trapping outside of the garden recently. Which is why the next moth came as an even bigger surprise - a Clifden Nonpareil in West Berkshire, considerably less tricky to identify than the worn Dotted Rustic a night earlier, and the highlight of the week by a country mile. The only other signs of nocturnal migration had been a handful of Diamond-back Moths and Silver Y, and Udea ferrugalis until last night when I had a Pearly Underwing to the garden trap among a fantastic catch of 251 moths of 45 species. Marc Botham, Benson

Clifden Nonpareil - West Berks 16th September

Pearly Underwing - Benson 17th September

Fern.

In Chorleywood, last night, I was moderately surprised to find a pair of Small Dusty Waves and a bit more surprised to have a Fern on the outside of the trap. WT and L say one generation to mid August for the Fern, but I often check the Hants Moth website for their phenology charts and I see they have a low incidence of the moth going through September, complete with  a slight gap, which strongly suggests to me second generation. Doing the same thing for Small D W, I can't really justify being surprised at getting a couple.
Andy King.

Further autumnal species

Black Rustic & Acleris emargana, accompanied by second-brood Scythropia crataegella & Beautiful Hook-tip, appeared in the garden trap here at Westcott, Bucks on 14th September while last night (15th) I got a rather worn Orange Sallow.  The Rothamsted trap at Marsh Gibbon, Bucks had a Brown-spot Pinion on 10th September and a Brindled Green last night.  Dave Wilton

Scythropia crataegella, Westcott 14th September

Orange Sallow, Westcott 15th September

Mursley moths

I re-positioned my trap last night (not easy in such a small garden!) and got a better catch after a series of disappointing nights. I was pleased to finally get Angle Shades, my 220th species since mid May. I was also fairly confident about Ypsolopha sequella and Black Rustic.

However, there were a couple of moths I was not sure about and would welcome help:

Is this Mottled Rustic?

...and could this possibly be Neglected Rustic? Sorry, just realised this is a heathland species - silly me! Any ideas what it is?

Many thanks
Mick Jones

Central Oxford Micro Query

Still very quiet here in central Oxford with numbers frustratingly low. I do have one micro query to put to the panel: it looks like an Acleris species and I would guess from the wing shape that it might be A. comariana (Strawberry Tortrix) though it could be A. laterana or A. schalleriana (though the shape looks wrong for this) which both have similar costal triangles. Any help would be much appreciated.

Adam

Acleris species

Dark side

That pointer to autumn, Darth Vader, has arrived in the Robinson trap here. I mean the Black Rustic, whose shape and colour bring the Star Wars villain to mind. There were two yesterday morning, one in the eggboxes and the other - above - on a wall nearby. On Friday night, meanwhile, the trap had an excursion to a lovely cottage between Minster Lovell and Worsham where Mary Elford had organised a moth meeting of the West Oxfordshire Field Club. She brought her actinic trap too and we had an
excellent catch including large numbers of Snouts and the Oak Hook-tip and Feathered Gothic, below.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Passenger (but not here)

Don't get excited. This isn't an Oxfordshire moth and I hope it isn't against the regs to show it. I just wanted to thank Andy King very much for identifying it from my Corfu holiday haul, mentioned in my last post here. It hadn't occurred to me (dim or what?) that this moth, photographed twice at Kalami on the north east coast of the island last week, might be in WT&L. But there it is on page 337 - the Passenger, Dysgonia algira, next to a very similar species which I greatly covet on account of its name: the Geometrician. Alas, I am unlikely to see a Passenger here. There are only some ten UK records according to my WTL (1st edition). But the way things are warming up, you never know. Many thanks, Andy.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Vestal in Walters Ash

Almost the last moth out of the trap this morning was a Vestal which was a very pleasant surpprise. Only my 5th record of this species here, though 2 were last year.  Neil Fletcher

Westcott, Bucks

Having had Sallow and Pink-barred Sallow back on 3rd September and then Large Wainscot on the 5th, further autumnal species in the garden trap here at Westcott have included Frosted Orange (10th), Lunar Underwing (11th) and Deep-brown Dart (12th).  Last night's catch of 40 species included fresh examples of a few which I don't always get as second broods:  Archips podana, Epiblema uddmanniana, Eudonia pallida, Acentria ephemerella & Light Emerald, while over the past few days I've also had Least Carpet (11th), Riband Wave (10th) and Lilac Beauty (9th). 

Square-spot Rustic continues to fill the trap, with 101 counted last night.  That takes the garden total past 1,100 since the first example on 12th August.  Large Yellow Underwing, on the other hand, has managed only 766 individuals and has been going since the end of May.  Lunar Underwing usually gives Square-spot Rustic a run for its money here so it will be interesting to see how that species does this year.  Dave Wilton

Deep-brown Dart, Westcott 12th September

Pink-barred Sallow, Westcott 12th September

Epiblema uddmanniana, Westcott 12th September

Flounced Rustic?

This one seemed a little bigger and different from the other Flounced Rustics - I'd appreciate a second opinion.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Quiet in Oxford

All rather quiet here in central Oxford. In fact with the clear nights recently I haven't even been bothering though now that we've had some cloud again I put the trap out and was rewarded with a mere smattering of moths including a Small Ranunculus which was new for the year.

Small Ranunculus

I've come across a couple of moth larva on my daily walks which have been ID'd thanks to Bird Forum. I thought that I'd share them with you by way of some variety from the usual winged adults

Bright-line Brown-eye

Knot Grass

Brass band

Hello from Thrupp where the yellow sweater has been snatched by Burnished Brasses, interestingly. Maybe the ten of them in the MV trap was a result of putting it out very early as I gather from WT&L that they enjoy flying at dusk. I hope I am right in saying that the pair above show the two forms aurea (foreground) and juncta.  A more appropriate candidate for the yellow sweater, the Brimstone moth, took second place. Meanwhile I have a marathon ID-ing job in hand after holidays and if anyone knows anything about the moths of Corfu and can help me here, I'd be most grateful.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Cookham update, and help with 2 micros

With the temperature dropping to 8 degrees last night, as expected there were fewer moths in the garden trap this morning (72 individuals, comprising 35 species). Even Large Yellow Underwing was down to just 12. There were however a couple of macros new for the year - Feathered Gothic and Lunar Underwing - and also one new micro - Beautiful China-mark (Nymphula nitidulata) pictured below.

I have a couple of small micros that I would like help with. They both had forewings measuring between 5-6mm.
The first I think is Aspilapteryx tringipennella?

The second I am not sure about, but I suspect it may be a candidate for the chop?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Toadflax Brocade

Disappointingly, no Toadflax Brocade has visited my weekly garden trap this year. However, yesterday I spotted 2 caterpillars on some Purple Toadflax in my garden which I think are Toadflax Brocades. Below is a photo of one of them.

Steve Trigg, Cookham