Help with a couple of micros and a Wainscot please

Not sure on this one at all. Any help would be appreciated.

Is this a Striped Wainscot?

How about a Red-barred Tortrix?

Lastly, I think this one maybe Oncocera semirubella

These were all trapped on 18/07/16 in my garden at Tilehurst.

Tony Towner.

Tree-lichen you Beauty!

Finally got set my Robinson Trap last night at Ali's Pond after faffing around for months trying to find out why it wasn't working consistently (I sent it back to Watkins and Doncaster and it turns out it was an intermittent fault in the extension cable!). Anyway it was worth the wait because on the outside of the trap when I got there this morning was this cracking little Tree-lichen Beauty - a first for my parish records. Another first in the trap was a pristine specimen of Large White Butterfly ! Had Brown Hawker Dragonfly in there before but never a butterfly.

Square-spotted Clay? and an Ear

This was taken at Hollington Wood in North Bucks on 25th July at a 40W actinic Skinner type trap.  I think it may be a Square-spotted Clay but could be wrong.  It is a chunky beast though which is not a feature I recall for Triple-spotted Clays and Double Square Spots.  The Amphipoea specimen was in my Robinson trap in my garden  at Newport Pagnell this morning.  I understand it is a genitalia job to identify which of the four it might be. As I see them so rarely, I am happy to leave it at that.

  

From Gordon Redford, Newport Pagnell, Bucks.

Tyger, tyger, burning bright...

Garden Tiger is supposed to be rare in Bucks these days and until this year I hadn't had one in the garden trap since 2009.  As already reported, I was very pleasantly surprised when one turned up on 12th July and I haven't yet mentioned that a second followed on the 21st.  Then on the 26th I had two more, the less flighty one of them being illustrated in the quick happy-snap below.  Last night (27th) I had a fifth!  Very nice to see, but what's going on with this species?!

Garden Tiger and friends, Westcott 26th July

Moths new for the year over the past few nights have included the following:

(23rd) Metzneria metzneriella, Black Arches.
(24th) Dusky Brocade.
(25th) Marbled Beauty.
(26th) Ypsolopha dentella, August Thorn, Sycamore.
(27th) Prochoreutis myllerana, Eana osseana, Ancylis badiana, Catoptria pinella, Pyralis farinalis,
          Stenoptilia pterodactyla, Pebble Hook-tip, Phoenix, Wormwood Pug, September Thorn, Mouse Moth,
          Copper Underwing.

Last night's garden catch was the best of the week so far, with 148 species appearing.  If confirmed (and they'll get critical examination to be sure), then Prochoreutis myllerana and Eana osseana will each be only the second records for Bucks as well as being new additions to the site list (I'm now only about a dozen short of reaching 900 species at Westcott).  I might have had another if I hadn't messed up trying to pot a Bactra species which looked good for furfurana and it flew off!


Probable Prochoreutis myllerana, Westcott 27th July

Probable Eana osseana, Westcott 27th July

On the migrant front I've not had anything as exciting as Martin Wainwright's Four-spotted Footman but Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella), Rusty-dot Pearl (Udea ferrugalis) and Silver Y have put in appearances over the past few nights along with, of course, the inevitable Diamond-back Moths (Plutella xylostella).

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks


Help please.

Could someone please point me in the right direction as to the identification of the attached, any help greatly received!. Pyrausta?

Steve Lockey (Garsington)

Spots of various sorts

Following Neil Fletcher's record on 16 July, I found this male Four-spotted Footman in the trap this morning. Their size really comes as a surprise. I've only had one previously here, on 23 July 2014. It was also a treat to see a Maiden's Blush and a Leopard, the latter conforming to UK Moths' note that the species sometimes 'rests conspicuously during the daytime'.  I photographed it an hour-an-a-half ago and it is still there on the windowsill, now in full sun, unmolested by the pesky robin and blackbird which inspect the area both before I arrive and after I have cleared away the trap.   Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon 

 

Update: here is the Leopard this evening, below, 12 hours after the picture above was taken. It has moved regularly during the day but only to alter its angle. Dozens of birds have passed nearby. Fascinating.

Chalk grassland daytime sightings

On Tuesday I had a daytime look at the chalk grassland site near Stokenchurch, Bucks which I've been trapping at regularly this year.  Moth species seen included Nemophora metallica (12, all on flowers of field scabious), Pyrausta aurata (1), Six-spot Burnet (8), Shaded Broad-bar (1), Dusky Sallow (1) & Silver Y (6).  Some 50 or so plants of dark mullein were inspected and five larvae of Striped Lychnis were found on those in the sunniest positions, most of them still quite small.



Nemaphora metallica female, 26th July

Dusky Sallow, 26th July

Striped Lychnis larva, 26th July

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Walton Lake, Milton Keynes

I ran a couple of MV traps in the reeds at Walton Lake last night.  There wasn't a great deal of activity around either light and only about 90 species were recorded, but many of those expected did put in an appearance (including Chilo phragmitella, Calamotropha paludella, Schoenobius gigantella, Southern Wainscot & Silky Wainscot, the latter including one f. bipunctata which I don't recall having seen before).  Other species included Sallow Kitten, Maple Prominent, Brown-tail, White Satin, Small Ranunculus and Double Lobed.

Brown-tail helpfully "playing dead", Walton Lake 26th July

Small Ranunculus, Walton Lake 26th July

Silky Wainscot f. bipunctata, Walton Lake 26th July

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

  

Some new garden moths for checking

Like Dave Ferguson, I also had a Cydalima perspectalis attracted to my garden trap last night, although I do not have any box hedging.

Two other moths were firsts for me. I think this one is Dark Umber.

And am I correct in thinking this is July Highflyer?

Steve Trigg, Cookham

The worst is yet to come

Does this Box Moth (Cydalima perspectalis), identified for me by Mr Wilton, spell doom for our lone Box bush? Only time will tell as this invasive pest spreads through the UK.

Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield

Grangelands July 24th

The weather forecast was good, mild with little or no wind and dry and it is now the time when the re-discovered plume Oxyptilus pilosellae is out and about, so I contacted the National Plume expert Colin Hart and together with Martin Albertini, we decided to give it a go on Sunday. We arrived to strong gusty winds and drizzle, which persisted for much of the 3 hour session leaving us rather wet by the end. With a bit of searching we managed to find some shelter, although each trap was still subject to gusts of wind and the almost relentless light drizzle. As such it was rather quiet for the time of year. We ran 8 traps in total. I'm still waiting for Colin's list, but at the moment we have a list of 131 species split between 91 macros and 40 micros. Most frequent was Small Fan-footed Wave, followed by the Coronet and close behind Eudonia lacustrata. Specialists were Juniper Pug and a single Chalk Carpet. Nice to see were: Scarlet Tiger, Square-spotted Clay, Privet Hawk, Oncocera semirubella and Sycamore. Peter Hall & Martin Albertini

Grangelands: Chalk Carpet

Macro or Micro?

Help please with this one. I can't find it for looking - apologies if it's something obvious like Bordered White.

Steve Lockey (Garsington)

Are my Corn Flakes safe?

Very many thanks for recent ID help but I am afraid that it has encouraged me to ask for more. I wondered if the above moth might be Pyralis lienigialis (tricky, getting in all those 'i's in lienigialis)? Hence my post title. But I think almost certainly not. Maybe Hypsopygia glaucinalis in a different resting position from that shown on Pg 251 of the Moth Bible (which also shows Pyralis l)? As you can see, I am trying...

I hope I've done better in suggesting that this one, above, is Epiblema foenella? If so, many thanks to Dave Morris for his pic of one on the blog earlier.

Next, is this Mottled Beauty dark enough to be form conversaria (which Peter Hall kindly ID-ed for me when it came a couple of years ago)?

And finally, may I seek guidance on this one which predictably leaves me baffled.  Many thanks in advance and for all the help provided by UTM.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Thorns & things.

After accidentally leaving the trap switched on last night, I was pleased to get new for year Dusky and August Thorns...

Also got a Limnaecia phragmitella which as I can see from other posts is more than happy to wander far from it's natural habitat and I'm probably about as far as you can get in Bucks...

I would appreciate some help on these micros as well...

(this last one is notably large - 18mm nose to tail).

Dave Morris, Seer Green

College Lake - chalk grassland

My other two traps at College Lake, Bucks on Saturday night were run on the chalk and brought in about 150 species between them.  The most numerous moth by far was the delightful micro Oncocera semirubella, of which more than 70 attended the lights here as did another 30 or so at the traps in the reeds so over 100 were recorded altogether.  Other niceties included Paratalanta hyalinalis, Toadflax Pug, Annulet, Kent Black Arches (seemingly everywhere nowadays!) and Rosy Minor, with a really good supporting cast of the common and widespread summer species divided roughly 50-50 between micros and macros.

Oncocera semirubella, College Lake 24th July

Paratalanta hyalinalis, College Lake 24th July

Annulet, College Lake 24th July

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Still no really big numbers in Longwick

Interestingly the moths which are appearing in large - er numbers are Common Footman and Least Carpet here in Longwick. New arrivals included a pristine Herald, limnaecia phragmitella and what I assume is ectoedemia decentella ( apologies for poor photo)?

IDs please

I think I maybe have Aethes cnicana (sorry I didn't get the size) and Limmaecia phragmitella. I also got a Short-cloacked moth with is new to me.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

Mompha langiella.

A Mompha langiella; one of two raised from leaf-mines on Enchanter's Nightshade, gathered while I was weeding in my Chorleywood garden a few weeks ago.

Not a common moth in Bucks.
Mind you, I really could do without that wretched weed in my garden.
Andy King.

College Lake - reedbed

Last night I ran four MV lights at BBOWT's College Lake reserve, two on the chalk and two in the reeds.  The latter pair brought in about 120 species and it was good to see a reasonable selection of habitat specialists considering that it is still perhaps a little bit early in this area for some of the Wainscots.  It was really pleasing to get a double-digit count there of Southern Wainscot, a species which looks superficially like Smoky but has pointier wing-tips and diagnostic stripes across the front of the thorax.  The one shown below was a particularly well-marked individual. 

Southern Wainscot, College Lake 23rd July

Southern Wainscot, College Lake 23rd July

Obscure Wainscot, Brown-veined Wainscot, Small Rufous and Silky Wainscot also put in appearances, while amongst the micros were Phalonidia manniana, a Gynnidomorpha species still requiring confirmation, Chilo phragmitella, Calamotropha paludella and Schoenobius gigantella.  Some of the 18 examples of Calamotropha paludella were far spottier (f. nivella) than I've ever seen before, including the one shown below.

Calamotropha paludella f. nivella, College Lake 23rd July

Small Rufous, College Lake 23rd July

Of the two Brown-veined Wainscots which visited the traps, one was a very dark individual indeed.

Brown-veined Wainscot, College Lake 23rd July

Amongst the other species caught in the reeds were Bordered Pug, Round-winged Muslin and Gothic (the latter being the first I've seen anywhere for five or six years). 

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks