I stand corrected!

In my last post, I showed a photo of what I claimed to be E dodocella, but I was wrong. The moth was in fact Teliopsis diffinis. What is worse, is that when I checked it out on Ian Kimber's website, UKMoths, the photo is MINE, from France.

I am quite sure about all the photos I am going to show below, which were in the trap this morning, starting with a Bee Moth, a female, very much bigger than the male. They do not resemble bees in any way, but are so named because their larvae live in bumble bee and wasp nests.



Bee Moth

I was confused by the next one, as the Raspberry Moth usually has far more tiny spots on it than this one. Its larvae eat young raspberry type buds and shoots. The moth is only about 5 mm long.



Raspberry Moth

Some weeks ago I commented on finding some Lozotaenia forsterana larvae on Ivy in the garden and a couple of them have hatched out this week, as shown below.

Lozotaenia forsterana

 

 66 moths in the trap of 26 species, well down on Fridays catch of 86 and 39 species.

Friday

Friday night saw another 'moths in YOUR garden' survey, this time just down the road from me in All Stretton. It was another successful night with several moths recorded, and an enjoyable couple of hours looking through them in the morning.

The highlight from the trap for looks was this rather smart Burnished Brass, a species that Graham also caught in his garden on the same night.

Burnished Brass

Another moth in the trap was the Small Angle Shades, a species that we have only record on a few occasions this spring. It is also one which has not featured here before.

Small Angle Shades

The new species for us were in the form of a few micro moths. We recorded two species that I have not seen before, the first was this Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix.

Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix

The other new species was this Epiblema trimaculana, one of a few similar species. This is a common species which use hawthorn as the larval food plant.

Epiblema trimaculana

So a relatively modest 23 moths of 17 species held several surprises, and I look forward to running the trap in the same garden in a few weeks time.

Full swing

I will try to reconstitute this post, as somehow I managed to delete it!

The simple thing is to just show the pictures again as they all appear in the label list. The first was a rather worn Barred Umber

Barred Umber

The reason I managed to delete the post was because I found out that the moth I had labelled as E dodecella was in fact B terella and in trying to change it, lost the lot.

Bryotropha terrella

Also featured were the first Burnished Brass here - a moth under scrutiny as some people believe there are 2 different ones (others do not). The debate concerns whether the brass band is H shaped (like this) or split in 2.

Another first, not only for the site, but for me personally was a Purple Clay and  a very well marked Shoulder-striped Wainscot.

Purple Clay

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Lastly I pictured Tinea semifulvella, related to the clothes moths, but usually living in bird's nests.

Tinea semifulvella

An awesome wave

A few new species have appeared at the moth trap over the last few days, with a noticeable shift in the commons species as well. This week has seen the emergence of the Heart & Club. Not having been recorded before, the last two trapping sessions in Batch Valley have recorded nine individuals, making it the commonest moth at present.

Heart & Club

Others have appeared in smaller numbers. One of them is the delicate Satin Wave, which I found in the garden on Tuesday night. This is one of the moths which overwinters in the larval stage, with the caterpillars hibernating over the winter.

Satin Wave

Micro lepidoptera have been in short supply this week, but I was pleased to find one new species for the garden in the trap this morning. This was a Celypha striana, like the Satin Wave the larval stage feeds on dandelion, a plant which is in good supply in the garden.

Celypha striana

Other new species for the garden including The Flame, which Graham mentioned in a blog recently, and a long-awaited Buff-tip. The Buff-tip is a species I have been hopeful of attracting one to the moth trap. I recorded a caterpillar in the garden last year, but until this week had never recorded the adult stage. Whilst we try not to repeat pictures of the same species on the blog, I will make an exception for this exceptional looking moth.

Buff-tip

Time and Tide ....

It has all been happening, except for me finding time to do the blog, but better late than never (I hope).

We had a report the day after I did my last post that there were Grizzled Skippers at Coppice Leasowes, so we dodged the showers and went to see. No Skippers in sight and the only "brown job" flying was actually a Burnet Companion moth. By chance, I looked at the hedgerow planted alongside the stream near where we had parked the car and there were dozens of Spindle Ermine caterpillars, in untidy larval spinnings munching away there.

Burnet Companion

Spindle Ermine larvae

 With the steady improvement in the weather, trap catches have improved and there have been several new species present - far too many to include all their photos, so here is a selection;

The first is a Lobster Moth. Not named because of its colours, but because of the way its caterpillar sits. Have a look on the internet and see if you can find one!


Lobster Moth

The Flame

This one is called the Flame, which curls its wings tightly round its body. Can you see why it is called that? 





The next is an Alder Moth, look out for its caterpillar which has yellow patches on a black background and it has several long black hairs too. most unusual.


On the home front, there was a crop of micro-moths hatched out from the larvae off the Hart's-tongue ferns from the garden. Surprisingly these were not P. filicivora like the previous ones, but P. verhuella, meaning that both species were living side by side n the same plant. I was also very pleased to find that the Mullein plants we begged from a friend's garden have indeed got Mullein moth larvae feeding on them.

Alder Moth

Mullein

Have a look on your own plants and see if you have got any.

Pincer movement

The Strettons Area Community Wildlife Group 'moths in YOUR garden' surveys continued on Saturday night. This time we went for a pincer movement, with both Graham and I taking our traps up to a site near The Lawley.

It was not an ideal night for trapping, a bit too windy and wet, but we still had a successful night with 59 moths of 32 species. We also had an enjoyable morning looking at the moths followed by some welcome bacon and egg buttys! These are the aims of the surveys, to enthuse and inform people about the moths lurking in their gardens, and to improve recording of moths in the Strettons area.

We had several new species, including the Lychnis. A noctuid moth which was found roosting close to Graham's trap.

Lychnis

It is fair to say that the majority of the moths were found in Graham's 125w Robinson trap compared to my actinic heath trap. This is not surprising as the former is more powerful, but as we suspected there were a few different species in the actinic. One of these was a Common Wainscot, found on a final sweep of the grass.

Common Wainscot

One of the most numerous species, and one which had not had a picture yet appear here, was the Beautiful Golden Y. We had seven of these around the traps. This was a particular interesting individual being unusually marked.

Beautiful Golden Y

We also had a couple of migrants. Like some of our butterflies, we get moths which migrate to this country each year form the continent. One which is familiar to many people is the Silver Y, and we saw one of these. Another is the Diamond-back Moth, a small micro moth that appears in its thousands in the UK each year. One of these has made it to the Lawley.

Diamond-back Moth

There were quite a few other new micro moths. This Coleophora albicosta was one of them. There are quite a few similar species, but as the scientific name suggests, this species has a white streak along the costa (forewing edge).

Coleophora albicosta

So another successful survey was complete. We still have a few gardens to visit before we begin on our second sessions for some sites.

Animals

A warm and muggy day on Tuesday turned into a warm a muggy night. It was the best night of the year so far to run the mothtrap, and both Graham and I duly switched ours on. In the morning I could tell it was a good night. There were Brimstones and Brown Silver-lines around the trap and a Poplar Hawkmoth resting on a nearby log.

On opening the trap there was a feast for the eyes. I recorded a staggering 12 new species for the garden, with several more making their first appearance this year. The contents of the trap took on an 'animal' theme, starting with this female Fox Moth.

Fox Moth

Next to come were the elephants, with the next egg tray holding both an Elephant Hawk-moth and a Small Elephant Hawkmoth. In total I had three Small Elephant Hawkmoths to the one Elephant Hawkmoth. These moths get their name from the larval stage of the Elephant Hawkmoth. The caterpillar of this species bears an uncanny resemblance to an elephants trunk. The Elephant is shown below, with the Small Elephant in the background.

Elephant Hawkmoth

On the same egg tray we went from blundering elephants, to a kitten. This Alder Kitten to be precise, and in my opinion just shading it in terms of the moth of the morning. As the name suggests the larvae feed on alder, but they will also feed on birch. I have several of both these trees around me so hopefully this will not be the last time this impressive moth makes an appearance.

Alder Kitten

Moths then took on an ornithological theme. Following the Common Swifts that both Graham and I have caught in recent weeks, I had three Map-winged Swifts in the trap. This moth is named due to the white markings on the wing resembling a map. The larvae of this species live underground and feed on the roots of bracken, and with the bracken dominated slopes around my home I am expecting to record this species quite frequently from now on.

Map-winged Swift

There were also several micro moths in the trap, and I am still trying to identify all of them. One which was quite straightforward to name was this Udea olivalis.

Udea olivalis

Finally, as a reminder to check around the trap as well as in it, I found this May Highflyer on one of my windows after I had packed away the trap. As with the Alder Kitten, this moth also feeds on alder in the larval stage.

May Highflyer

When the final totals were compiled, there were 62 moths of 33 species in and around the trap. My highest totals since last August, and hopefully a precursor for more moths to come.