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

23rd July 2019

The start of a small heatwave coincided with a dramatic overnight thunderstorm. So while diversity wasn't as remarkable as this time last week, the rain didn't stop some interesting moths arriving.

The headliners were two pyralids - firstly the stunning Oncocera semirubella, one of those species that jumps out at you in the field guide and a really good species to record here.

Oncocera semirubella

The second pyralid was considerably more cryptic and also somewhat worn. The only match is Pempelia genistella a predominantly coastal species with records seemingly mostly from Suffolk and Essex in the region. Not sure if there's been many (or any) VC29 records.

Pempelia genistella

I had almost ignored a plain gelechiid but the photos show it to be a match for Acompsia cinerella:

Acompsia cinerella

Another scarce species locally, Phtheochroa inopiana, was the next one added to the garden list:

Phtheochroa inopiana

The final new one involved two tortrix individuals in the Dichrorampha genus - they are quite different to each other but both look likely to involve D.vancouverana:

Dichrorampha vancourverana

There were plenty of other good moths which included the second garden record of Eucosma campolinana. I failed to photograph the first one so its a shame that this years had seen better days:

Eucosma campoliliana

[532] Acompsia cinerella
[533] Oncocera semirubella
[534] Pempelia genistella
[535] Phtheochroa inopiana
[536] Dichrorampha vancouverana