14th August 2020 - feeling blue

A remarkably poor catch became completely irrelevant when under the last egg box was this monster, an awesome Clifden Nonpareil. Although in recent years they have been turning up in several places it is still a rare treat to catch one. I was taken aback by its size and it caused me to improvise after not being immediately able to find a pot it fitted comfortably in. 

[614] Clifden Nonpareil

This is the view that I was presented with when turning the egg box over:

It was also a very popular moth with the youngsters:

The only other moth of note was a smart Purple Bar which was new for the year:

Notts Moths 2020

My now annual later summer trip back to Nottinghamshire produced a couple of new moths to me in the form of Apotomis capreana and a worn but still distinctive Chrysoclista linneella (Lime Cosmet):

Apotomis capreana

Chrysoclista linneella

Gold Spots were abundant this year:

Gold Spot Plusia festucae

While Barred Hook-tip is a species I've only seen in Norfolk previously:

Barred Hook-tip Watsonalla cultraria

Honeysuckle Moth seems to occur in most of my traps outside of the County but never in my garden:

Honeysuckle Moth Ypsolopha dentella

9th August 2020

After the heights of the 7th it was no surprise that the following session couldn't quite match it. However, what seems to be VC29s (and my) third Sciota adelphella was great to see, especially as it stayed to be photographed unlike last months individual. Its been a fascinating run of records of this rare species here - it can only be concluded to be resident locally which is some distance from the known nearest colonies in Suffolk. 

Sciota adelphella

There was a new moth too - a tricky Dichrorampha tortricid. It's small size and location of the costal fold are good for D.acuminatana rather than similar species such as simpliciana:

[613] Dichrorampha acuminatana

There have been several moths recntly occurring in numbers not seen previously. This includes Pyrausta purpuralis, which was NFG only last year:

The warm nights have been notable for plenty of by-catch with beetles being overwhelming at times. Two of the more interesting ones were these monsters:

Great Diving Beetle Dytiscus marginalis

Lesser Stag Beetle Dorcus paralellapipidus

7th August 2020 - hot stuff

What a night. Sometimes, all things align and moths come in abundance with several surprises all at once and this was one of those occasions. It was a roasting night and an incredible six were new for the garden:

[607] Bucculatrix thoracella
[608] Phyllonorycter quercifoliella
[609] Ash Bud Moth
[610] Cochylidia implicitana
[611] Dusky Thorn
[612] Gypsy Moth

Gypsy Moth has turned up a handful of times locally recently but it was still great to see this charismatic species. It was formerly common in East Anglia but became extinct at around 1900:

Gypsy Moth Lymantria dispar

Just as rare, if not more so in VC29 is Oak Processionary. I recorded two individuals in 2018 which I think may have been the joint first for the vice county. I had predicted that they would turn up here this year as several were reported outside of their usual haunts. Again, there were two in the trap:

Oak Processionary Thaumetopoea processionea

Dusky Thorn is a widespread species I have trapped readily elsewhere. For some reason its not regular round here and they've taken quite a few years to find their way to my garden trap:

Dusky Thorn Ennomos fuscantaria

On to the micros, Cochylidia implicitana was a good one to find:

Cochylidia implicitana

After recording the species that was split from it, Prays ruficeps a couple of times, I was happy to catch up with two Prays fraxinella (Ash-bud Moth): 

Ash-bud Moth Prays fraxinella

A worn Bucculatrix thoracella is another one of this tricky group that I can add to the list:

Bucculatrix thoracella

Talking of tricky groups, 2020 has been the year of the Phyllonorycter here and there was another new one. P. quercifoliella has a diagnostic lengthy longitudinal streak:

Phylloncorycter quercifoliella

There was another P. comparella too:

Phyllonorycter comparella

Also, there was a final Phyllonorycter that couldn't be identified to species. It resembles the hostis / spincolella group I think. 

Phyllonorycter sp. 

5th August 2020

It is unusual to report on a trapping session no new moths in recent weeks but there was still some good things to be found including several that were just the second records for the garden. These included the following:

Calybites phasianipennella

Peacock Moth Macaria notata

Apotomis betuletana

Brachmia blandella

Acleris laterana / comeriana

A couple more interesting tortricids included a second generation Epinotia immundana that had me stumped for a while. This is a species I associate with spring rather than late summer:

The extremely variable E.nisella is more of a classic late summer species here though:

Epinotia nisella

We have some Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillars on the go - some of which are doing well and will hopefully pupate for us to look after until next year:

Eyed Hawkmoth Smerinthus ocellata

31st July 2020

As it was one of the warmest nights of the year, the trap was predictable busy. A return of 131 species was one my highest ever although with the exception of Water Veneer (100+) and Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner (60+) numbers of the commoner species were fairly low. The quality was extremely high though with an amazing five new for the garden:

[602] Phyllocnistis unipunctella

[603] Scythris limbella

[604] Merrifieldia baliodactlylus

[605] Clavigesta purdeyi

[606] Lesser Spotted Pinion

The main event was the striking micro Scythris limbella which has the rather great vernacular name Goosefoot Owlet. This is a proposed Red Data Book species and doesn't appear to be regular anywhere. It is also the first modern day record for VC29. 

Scythris limbella

Just a few days after recording my first Phyllocnistis species, I caught another. This one has a distinct dark wing markings indicative of P. unipunctella:

Phyllocnistis unipunctella

A small distinctive looking small plume turned out to be Dingy White Plume Merrifieldia baliodactlylus. A nationally scarce species than in the vice county is pretty much restricted to a handful of records at Wicken and Chippenham Fens:

Dingy White Plume Merrifieldia baliodactlylus

A species that I had seen before was Clavigesta purdeyi, a pine feeding tortrix that turned up at Corbett Street in 2014:

Clavigesta purdeyi 

Finally, a Lesser Spotted Pinion was great to trap after grilling several Lunar Spotted over the years:

Lesser Spotted Pinion Cosmia affinis

There many other moths new for the year including my second record of Eudemis profudana:

Eudemis profundana

While there were two of the superb Stathmopoda pedella:

Stathmopoda pedella

And the smartest Eucosma campoliliana I have caught:

Eucosma campoliliana

Caloptilia semifascia

29th July 2020 - 600 not out

A busy night dominated by interesting micro moths, three of which were new for both me and the garden. This included what is the 600th species for the garden - a very satisfying milestone to reach and one that never seemed particularly likely. The last three years have however been exceptional  with higher than average new moths appearing including some nice rarities. 

[599] Phyllonorycter harrisella

[600] Phyllocnistis xenia

[601] Cochylis dubitana

2020 has been amazingly productive for Phyllonorycter species here, and this (one of three) P. harrisella was the fourth one so far and is one of the more readily identified of the genus:

Phylloncorycter harrisella

Moth number 600 was another similar leaf mining moth, this time of the genus Phyllocnistis. I haven't previously seen any of the species in this group so I had to take some time to work it out - they are all white with a black terminal dot. These are seriously small species though (c6mm) and really hard to get a good photograph of. 

On the basis on yellow colouration between the striae, no shading halfway along the wing and a lack of a dark longitudinal line this matches P. xenia. This species has the vernacular name of Kent Bent-wing after its discovery in Kent in 1974. 

Phyllocnistis xenia

The final new species was something I've been on the look out for for a while, the tortricid Cochylis dubitana.  The diagnostic white head was very obvious when I came across it in the trap.

Cochylis dubitana

To complete the perfect storm of nightmareish tiny leaf mining species to struggle to work out was a Bucculatrix species. After flip flopping across four different species its best to park this one as being unidentified. It looks to be either frangutella or bechsteinella both of which I have recorded on single occasions before.

Bucculatrix sp.

24th July 2020

A Marbled Clover was a first for me here and a species I have seen only on a single occasion previously, at Chippenham Fen. They are rather smart as well as being a Red Data Book species due to being (mostly) restricted to the Brecks. 

The second new moth was a day flying Nettle-tap, so something a little more common. I've seen it a couple of times elsewhere in the village although it doesn't seem to be terribly abundant. 

[597] Common Nettle-tap

[598] Marbled Clover

Marbled Clover Heliothis viriplaca

Common Nettle-tap Anthophila fabriciana

New for the year was Leopard Moth, still in my top 10 garden moths I would think:

Leopard Moth Zeuzera pyrina