May 17th 2020

The third week of May featured repeated warm nights and some excellent returns from trap nights. On the 17th I recorded a new species for me:

[562] Tischeria ekebladella

This tiny leaf mining species, Tischeria ekebladella, nearly escaped my clutches as I very nearly dismissed this as Coptotriche marginea. It is a common species but it doesn't seem to come to light particularly regularly. 

Tischeria ekebladella

Treble-bar and Shark were just second garden records:

Treble-bar Aplocera plagiata

Shark Cucullia umbratica

Orange Footman is a little more regular but is still one of the scarcer footman species but often the first to appear in a year:

Orange Footman Eilema sororcula

The highlight though was an incredible twelve Coleophora amethystinella. This species was first recorded in the County in 2018 and I trapped a couple last year. So far this year I had one early in the month and located two along Church Lane during the daytime, however 12 in one trap was remarkable and represents what must be part of a dramatic population expansion across the region. Their diagnostic orange/red eyes and 'eyelashes' are easily visible even without photographing them.

Coleophora amethystinella

Two other good micros included two similar tortricids that are great to see side by side:

Aethes smeathmanniana

Cochylimorpha straminea

1st June 2019

A warm night, so not even the distraction of the Champions League Final put me off putting the trap out. 70+ species were the reward with an excellent five new for the garden:

[493] Bucculatrix albedinella

[494] Cydia conicolana

[495] Ochreous Pug

[496] Treble Bar

[497] Poplar Kitten

So I'm a few away from 500 - what will species will it be that gets the High Street garden list to that landmark? Probably another pug.....

There were two Bucculatrix species at the bottom of the trap - one being B. ulmella which I caught last year. Two other individuals were clearly different and most closely match B. frangutella, a seemingly scarce species associated with buckthorn. 

EDIT August 2020: the black apical streak and the shape/size of the moth strongly indicate albedinella rather than frangutella. Thanks to Jon Heath for the conversation on sorting out tricky Bucculatrix.

Bucculatrix albedinella

A tiny but smart tortrix was also difficult to pin down but it looks good for Cydia conicolana rather than the similar C. coniferana. Both are pine species and rare in the County (and Nationally Scarce B).

Cydia conicolana

I thought I might have been overlooking Ochreous Pug, but this individual was fairly obvious:

Ochreous Pug Eupithecia indigata

After recording Lesser Treble Bar in Norfolk last week, I was somewhat surprised to get two Treble Bars at home a few days later. This is a long awaited addition to my Cottenham list though.

Treble Bar Aplocera plagiata

I recorded Poplar Kitten in my first full year of Cottenham trapping in 2008 but not since. In fact after grilling many Sallow Kittens over the years I started to wonder if I had strung that old record. This one seems to have all the required features:

Poplar Kitten Furcula bifida