More Bucks Moths...

Autumnal species have been trickling through my garden over the last week. Although most of my nightly haul has comprised of Large Yellow Underwing, Lunar Underwing and Common Marbled Carpet, I have managed to continue to attract new species, so:

319. Rush Veneer
320. Figure of Eight
321. Blair's Shoulder-knot
322. Large Ranunculus
323. Brown-spot Pinion (first ever for my garden)
324. Beaded Chestnut

Brown-spot Pinion

Figure of Eight

Whetstone Leics. Slacking

Here's a well overdue update.

In September I have mainly been not trapping when the weather wasn't great, and not trapping last week when the weather was great 'cause I was working in France. Hence not too much going on to get excited about, and disappointingly when I have had the trap out I've missed out on anything like Vestal that has turned up in other Leics. gardens this year. Also starting to feel like having missed the best week in the month I'm maybe going to miss out on one or two expected species (Sallow, Pink-barred Sallow, Black Rustic, Frosted Orange all yet to appear in my garden traps this year, but trap is out again tonight and I still a chance). Pleased and slightly dismayed about last nights catch though; whilst I added nine species, a few of those were 'end of season' markers. Up to 425 now, with another couple of species new for the garden.

	Taxon	Vernacular	Date Added
404	Tinea trinotella		25/08/2013
405	Dichrorampha acuminatana		25/08/2013
406	Cacoecimorpha pronubana	Carnation Tortrix	26/08/2013
407	Vanessa atalanta	Red Admiral	26/08/2013
408	Stigmella aurella		26/08/2013
409	Eupithecia tripunctaria	White-spotted Pug	26/08/2013
410	Ephestia parasitella unicolorella		26/08/2013
411	Eudonia angustea		29/08/2013
412	Prays ruficeps		02/09/2013
413	Epinotia ramella		02/09/2013
414	Phyllonorycter strigulatella		02/09/2013
415	Omphaloscelis lunosa	Lunar Underwing	10/09/2013
416	Pararge aegeria	Speckled Wood	13/09/2013
417	Thera britannica	Spruce Carpet	28/09/2013
418	Lithophane leautieri hesperica	Blair's Shoulder-knot	28/09/2013
419	Allophyes oxyacanthae	Green-brindled Crescent	28/09/2013
420	Agrochola lota	Red-line Quaker	28/09/2013
421	Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut	28/09/2013
422	Hydraecia micacea	Rosy Rustic	28/09/2013
423	Chloroclysta siterata	Red-green Carpet	28/09/2013
424	Thera juniperata	Juniper Carpet	28/09/2013
425	Xanthia aurago	Barred Sallow	28/09/2013

Phyllonorycter strigulatella

Treble-bar

Red Underwing

Vapourer, ex-larva

Green-brindled Crescent

Red-green Carpet

Red-line Quaker

Beaded Chestnut

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Spruce Carpet

Good day...

A month away means I am playing catch up and also enjoying a swathe of new, autumnal moths. Only a few additions but what beauts! 

Numerical update since my last post as follows... 

207. Sallow

208. Lunar Underwing

209. Blair's Shoulder-knot 

Some pics for your delight and pleasure:

Silver-Y - canne get bored of these! 

Lunar Underwing 

Sallow

Blair's Shoulder-knot 

Keep on moth'ing moth'ers! 

Migrants at Galley!!

Haven't posted here for ages but thought I'd share a snap of one of two white-speck moths that were in the trap on Thursday morning. They are listed as scarce immigrants here in Ireland but have been recorded all around the coastline.  Nearly put them down as clay but checked the dates (would be late for clay) and studied them a little harder, before realising what they were. Also had c. 11 vestals in and around the trap - its been good conditions for them recently, with 66 trapped on tues night locally.

A few more in Bucks

September continues quietly on the moth front, with nightly catches in single figures, so there has been little opportunity to add any new species to my Garden Challenge list. However, the warmer weather this weekend has prompted me to run my MV light for a bit...

315. Lunar Underwing
316. Acleris emargana (NFG)
317. Red-Green Carpet
318. Oak Lutestring (lifer!)

Acleris emargana

Oak Lutestring

Quiet start to Autumn in Bucks.

Moth numbers have reduced dramatically recently in my South Bucks garden, with much colder and/or wetter nights.

I have been struggling to catch anything new for my challenge list, but I have had one or two things through, so a quick update:

308. Ypsolopha sylvella (lifer!)
309. Hypatima rhomboidella
310. Eudonia angustea
311. Pyrausta purpuralis (NFG)
312. Acleris sparsana
313. Blood-vein (NFG)
314. Centre-barred Sallow

 Blood-vein

Centre-barred Sallow

A bit of history...

Well, it's been a very successful moth and butterfly season (so far!), and I am up to (I think) 406 species for the garden, with the addition of today's holly blue, whirled in and out by the wind.

I was looking back at my old notebook from 1986, when I was a callow youth of 17, I trapped pretty much right through the season in my parents' garden just three miles down the road from my current house. Now, obviously, comparisons are limited, partly by the differences in location, but also by the difference in traps - 12w actinic then, 125w Robinson type MV now. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that I have caught a lot more species this year, as well as being enabled to identify micros by the superb Parsons and Sterling. What is of interest, I think, is the moths which I recorded in 1986, but not this year. For those species, a gap in the records this year might represent a real decline in local abundance in the intervening 27 years.

Those species are:

• Garden tiger
• Double dart
• Red chestnut
• White pinion-spotted
• Broom moth
• Dotted rustic
• Small dotted buff
• Dotted clay
• Gothic
• Pale eggar

I'd be interested to know if these are species thought to have declined widely, or are more likely to be the result of a slightly different location, or a more local change in population. The 1986 trapping took place in a more mature garden with a row of splendid mature oaks. In 1986 I caught Merveille-du-jour on 6th October, so I'm crossing my fingers for that one!

Autumn slow-down

Despite the weather and temperatures not having changed significantly in the last week, the moths seem to be aware that it's September, and have decreased in variety and in overall numbers considerably. Where in early August we had 117 Mothers-of-pearl in the trap in one night, recent nights have had them reduced to fewer than ten, and the total number of moths on some nights considerably lower than 117. Notwithstanding, and in line with the change of seasons, new species are continuing to turn up, although not as frequently as they did over the summer: it was lovely recently to see our first Angle Shades of the year, and I was grateful to Peter Hall, one of Butterfly Conservations Upper Thames Branch's resident experts, who shows tremendous patience in correcting my misapprehensions, for pointing out that what I thought was a Lychnis was in fact our first Campion of 2013. I've also enjoyed regular appearances from Lime-speck Pugs: they make a nice change to the usual rule of greeting the appearance of pugs with a weary acceptance that a tricky ID challenge is in store. Anyway: we now have a total of 372 (358 moths, 14 butterflies), and despite the slow-down, I'm hopeful of making 400 by the end of the year.

Angle Shades, 1st September

Campion, 2nd September