Every Cloud...

A gap in work commitments, along with promising conditions overnight, meant that Tuesday night was moth trap night. The returns were modest, with 27 moths of 13 species, but this included a new macro species for the garden and two new for the year appearances.

The crowd-pleasers were this squadron of Poplar Hawk-moths. Having been waiting for my first record of 2014, three arrived at once. All were beautiful fresh-looking individuals, with the lovely lilac sheen on parts of the upper forewing.

Poplar Hawk-moths (with Brown Rustic)

The new macro species for the garden was this Clouded-bordered Brindle, and very nice it was too. Not a record that caused much of a surprise, except for why this has taken so long to appear here. This is a common moth species, and the larvae feed on various grasses (which are not in short supply here).

Clouded-bordered Brindle

The other new species for the year was the only micro moth amongst the 27, this Teleiopsis diffinis. This is one of the gelechids and though apparently common over much of the country, it does not seem to be recorded particularly frequently in moth traps. It is a species that I have recorded several times, though the number of records for Shropshire is quite small.

Teleiopsis diffinis

One of the other highlights was this lovely Scalloped Hazel. Before this spring my only record had involved a dead individual found in my porch, however this is the third 'live' individual I have found this year.

Scalloped Hazel

Here we are again

It has been some time since I last posted anything here, but that does not mean that there has not been any moths about, only that there was nothing worth writing about really.

In fact there have been lots of moths on the few nights that I have thought it worth putting the trap on, with significant numbers of orthosias (Quakers, etc.), often in the hundreds, but until this week, nothing new or interesting.

So, taking a step backwards to a post I made in November last year, which showed a cocoon and pupa found at Earls Hill, well, you guessed, it hatched out and was a Scalloped Hazel. This was about 2 weeks early for this species.

Scalloped Hazel, pupa and cocoon

So, moving to last night, which was both warm and wet, in the trap there were about 100 moths, of which two were new to me here and have not been recorded for a few years in Shrops. as far as I know.

The first was a Great Prominent, one of the larger moths with a wing-span of more than 2 inches. The normal resting position, as seen in the photo is with its wings held tight to its body. The larval food-plant, like many other moths is Oak.



Great Prominent

Another Oak feeding moth larva is that of the Blossom Underwing, which is localised and not common. I was very pleased to catch this one. Some years there is an influx from the continent along the southern coastline.



Blossom Underwing

A very mixed bag!

Oh to be in England .............

It has certainly been a mixed bag of weather and mothing has been equally mixed. However there is lots to report in spite of the trap being fairly empty. How come I hear you say? Well because if they won't come to you, you have to go and look for them.

And so, those that came to me included some firsts for me here, especially pleasing being the Buff-tip moth, which mimics a bit of broken twig. Here are 2 pictures, an unusual one of its head - but note the detail.


Buff-tip




Buff-tip (head on view)

Equally pleasing was a fine example of a Scalloped Hazel. Its caterpillar feeds on dozens of different plants but I guess they found it on Hazel in the days when the names were decided.


Scalloped hazel

Another new moth for the site, also a geometrid was the pretty Clouded Border...


Clouded Border

...and there was also a Lunar Marbled Brown, one of the Notodontidae family.

Lunar Marbled Brown

On the micro-moth front, there are literally thousands of the "longhorn" moth Adela reaumurella about and you can see them 'dancing' round the bushes in the sunlight. A trip to Soudley in the sunshine on Friday led to the capture of another longhorn, with possibly the longest antenna as well as the longest name - Nematopogon swammerdamella. Also caught was an Incurvaria masculella.

Nematopogon swammerdemella

Incurvaria masculella

On the home front, the Lime Hawkmoth, Pale Tussock and Peppered Moth caterpillars/pupae hatched out this week. All of these have featured previously on the blog.

Peppered Moth

And lastly, a Cydia ulicetana hatched from some gorse pods taken on the Mynd several weeks ago.

Cydia ulicetana