Sunday July 29

Last night, with the rain lashing against the window of the bathroom, I noticed a tiny moth in the sink. It was unfortunately dead, and looked smaller than a grain of rice.

Despite this, I decided to photograph it on the palm of my hand, and was surprised to discover it was a lovely pattern of orange with white stripes and black streaks. A quick check of the internet revealed that quite a number of the family Gracillariidae look like that. Nevertheless I suspected I knew what it was and so emailed a shot over to JS. He came up with the same species, Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner.

Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner

Who would suspect that so tiny a creature could be public enemy number one to the organisers of the World Conker Championships?

Friday July 27

After looking at some very helpful photos of Copper and Svensson's Copper Underwings (deceased) sent to me by JS, I reviewed my own photographs from yesterday and I think I now have enough evidence to claim it as a Copper Underwing.

Copper Underwing

The copper colour on the right underwing does not extend along the thorax past the black mark, which eliminates Svenssons from the equation.

I am waiting to hear whether JS agrees.

No moths were harmed in the taking of this photograph.

On another hot day I studied the butterflies on the buddleia and counted four Small Whites, two large Whites, a Peacock, a Gatekeeper, and a rather worn Meadow Brown which was new for the year.

Meadow Brown

Friday July 26

As promised I put the trap out last night, and as hoped I awoke to find it full of moths.

In fact the mothing started during the night as a couple of visits to the bathroom produced three new moths, two micros and a macro. Unfortunately, the following morning the smallest micro escaped before I could look at it properly (probably a blessing in disguise because it was smaller than an ant). However the macro proved to be a Gold Spot, potentially quite a scarce moth, while the large micro was a common species I have caught before in the bathroom, Carcina quercana.

Gold Spot

Carcina quercana

One problem I have, being new to regular moth-trapping, is that my knowledge of local status is based on a 12 year old book called Larger Moths of Warwickshire, a magazine with an annual round up of rarer Warwickshire moths (all rarer than anything I have caught), and snippets of information from my mentor JS. He has been fantastic, and recently told me in an email that 2018 has been a sensationally good year for moths. I have picked a good year to start!

Anyway, this morning I peered into the trap and could see a lot of moths and a Hornet. The latter seemed quite docile (it was not the hoverfly mentioned in the previous posting) and I resolved to extract the moths very carefully. Ironically it managed to escape during the morning without me seeing it go.

The commonest macros were eight Dusky Thorns, and five Common Rustic ags. I also found two Iron Prominents, a Willow Beauty, three Shuttle-shaped Darts, a Scalloped Oak, four Dun-bars, and three Common Carpets as well as several rather duller looking species seen previously.

More exciting were the ones I hadn't seen before, the headline act being found clinging to the lead from the plug to the box. At first I couldn't work out which end its head was. This is because it was a quite extraordinary moth designed by nature to look like a broken twig. After leafing through the book I discovered it was a Pale Prominent.

Pale Prominent (facing right)

I was so thrilled with it that I showed it to my next-door neighbour. He tried to look interested whilst outwardly backing away nervously.

The egg boxes produced one more moth which was totally new to me; Tawny-barred Angle (nice moth shame about the name), and a very impressive one which I have seen previously and which I used to find regularly when I lived in a flat in Birmingham; Copper Underwing ag.

Tawny-barred Angle

Copper Underwing ag

The reason for the "ag" is that there is a very similar species called Svensson's Copper Underwing. They are best separated by the extent of the copper colour on the underside of their underwings. To see this I would have to kill it, and it was just too nice a moth. There may be another way to separate them, hopefully.

Turning to micros, I managed to identify two that were new to me, and one that was new for the year (in addition to the Carcina quercana). The new ones were two Eudonia mercurella, and an Ash Bud Moth Prays fraxinella.

Eudonia mercurella

Eudonia mercurella

Ash Bud Moth

New for the year was Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix.

Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix

In addition I took a couple of absolutely terrible shots of a 5 millimetre long moth which I couldn't identify. Fortunately JS suggested I look at Teleiodes vulgella, and having done so I consider that that it what it was.

Teleiodes vulgella

Among the rest of the catch I misidentified what JS tells me is a worn Bird-cherry Ermine, among seven others which I hope I have got right. I rather bravely decided a very yellow spotty Pyrausta was just another Pyrausta aurata (JS concurred), and I saw another Euzophera pinguis (one of the larger and more distinctive pyralids).

Pyrausta aurata (Not purpuralis)

I also ignored several worn moths, as counselled by JS.

The final score was 97 moths of 38 species. Not bad at all.

Wednesday July 25

Just a quick pre-moth trap night post. It's been pretty quiet, but picked up last night when I caught two Silver Ys (one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom) and an Agriphila tristella in the bathroom.

This is a very common grass moth, but its still the first this year, so gets its moment in the sun.

Agriphila tristella

Moving away from moths (hurrah), I noticed a "hornet" on the buddleia when I got home from work. But a closer look revealed it had, quite deliberately, fooled me. It was actually a Hornet Hoverfly Volucella zonaria. I have seen a similar species V inana before, but I can't remember identifying this one, and certainly not in the garden.

Volucella zonaria

Its a bit of a relief because I am already anticipating a few wasps in the moth-trap (they may be nesting in the shed again), and I didn't fancy battling with a Hornet too.

Saturday July 21

I've just finished the identification process in relation to the moths caught on Thursday night. The total score was 158 moths of 47 species, many of them new to me. The total was bumped up by the bodies of 72 Water Veneers found with a similar number of small Water Boatmen in the bottom of the trap. I don't know why these tiny moths and the other insects seem unable to survive the experience. I can only assume that they need to be close to or in water to remain alive.

The remainder of the catch was hale and hearty, and I spent a pleasant couple of hours sorting through them. One of the commoner moths in the trap are a micro called Bird-cherry Ermine. These are little white moths covered in tiny black dots. However, there are several other species of Yponomeuta species, all of which have fewer dots, and all of which can only be identified with reference to their genitals. I had been looking out for them, and caught at least one.

As an unexpected post-script I have received news from JS that the moth can be identified as Orchard Ermine Yponomeuta padella.

Orchard Ermine Yponomeuta padella

Fortunately most of the moths were macros, and so theoretically easier to identify. The only one to appear in the bathroom had been a Yellow-tail. I released it first and watched as it spiralled high into the air until lost from view. I hadn't expected it to do that.

The only pug of the morning, a Double-striped Pug, had chosen to rest on the garden chair I wished to sit on. I shooed it off and got down to business. Clinging to the side of the trap was a large fat bodied moth of the type I suspect people mean when they say they hate moths. It was a Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and was the first of two to turn up.

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

A beautiful Black Arches was resting on the side of the trap, while I could see several Thorn moths in the trap. These turned out to comprise three species; two were Dusky Thorns, but the other two were new ones. A Purple Thorn and a Canary-shouldered Thorn, the latter a particularly attractive species.

Purple Thorn

Canary-shouldered Thorn

The last moth before I started going through the egg boxes an interesting looking one. I ruled out Sycamore and Knot Grass on size, and concluded it was my first Poplar Grey.

Poplar Grey

One of the first egg boxes contained arguably the best looking moth of the morning, an Iron Prominent. Certainly the first for the garden, but I think I may have been shown one at a moth-trapping event once.

Iron Prominent

I decided to pot it so that Lyn could see it when she got up. Unfortunately this did mean that my only shot of it was from above looking into the pot, and it didn't resume its distinctive resting position.

Another candidate for moth of the day was Ruby Tiger, my first tiger moth for the garden. I actually found three in the trap by the end of the morning.

Ruby Tiger

A moth which I am familiar with from bathroom captures in previous years was Common Rustic ag. This annoying species manages to combine being highly variable, common, and impossible to split without reference to its genitals, hence the abbreviation ag (which I assume means aggregate) after its name. To show its variability I am showing the one I caught in the trap (which bore a similarity to a species called Double Lobed) and a darker one I caught in the bathroom last night.

Common Rustic ag

Common Rustic ag

Continuing with the theme of tricky macro moths, I caught another one which can't be safely identified from a photograph, Marbled Minor ag, and a similar species which I was tempted to identify, Cloaked Minor.

Marbled Minor ag

Cloaked Minor

Once again the problem is the extreme variation shown in the appearance of the Marbled Minor group. However, Cloaked Minor is distinctly more slender at the pointy end than the others. I am pleased to say that JS has concurred with all of the macro identifications I sent him.

Another moth which caused me difficulty, but shouldn't have, was a fairly distinctive looking moth in one of the egg boxes. I casually noted it as "Wave sp" in my notebook and photographed it for later identification. The macro moths are split into several groups in the same way that birds might be waders or warblers. The two largest groups are the geometers (the ones that flatten themselves out at rest with wings outstretched), and the noctuids (the ones with wings like cloaks which scuttle about and flutter a lot). My error came when I decided it was clearly a member of the former group. After going through page after page of geometers I couldn't find its likeness. A quick flip through the rest of the book also came up with nothing, so I emailed a picture to John. He quickly responded "try looking at Oak Hook-tip". And there it was, nestling among a small group of other Hook-tips in a different section to the geometers. A very easy to identify moth !

Oak Hook-tip

This is why you need a phone-a -friend option.

One last macro year-tick was a Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing. I can't help thinking that whoever invented the English moth names was deliberately trying to confuse inexperienced moth-ers like me.

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

I have largely ignored micros so far, but you shouldn't overlook the little blighters which typically perch on the perspex sheets or on the edges of the box, and I have to try to identify them. Most were ones I had seen before, and as I haven't heard back from JS yet some of these identifications could change. I think I have got them right though.

Acleris forsskaleana

Agriphila straminella

Clepsis consimilana

Cydia splendana

Hedya salicella

Zeiraphera isertana

Regarding the above I will only add that I caught seven Agriphila straminella and I know them to be a very common grass moth which emerges at about this time. They also look very similar to several other Crambidae moths, so JS may tell me they are something else. The rest are all from the enormous group Tortricidae which contains over 300 species. Fortunately most can be identified, and I am fairly hopeful for the ones shown.

I did photograph a very tiny moth which I think is from the group Elachistidae, and although it might be Elachista canapannella I am expecting to be told it is unidentifiable to species level on the basis of my photograph.

Elachista sp

Finally, I was sitting in the living room last night when I noticed a tiny white moth on my foot.  It was leaping about all over the place, but I finally caught it and observed it had a little yellow head and was probably a Common Clothes Moth Tineola bisselliella. I popped it in the fridge expecting it to calm down, but an hour later it was still too lively to photograph so I let it go...outside.

Thursday July 18

A week of not mothing has passed, but with the temperatures remaining warm it was inevitable that a few would find their way into the bathroom.

On Sunday night they comprised the first Blastobasis adustella of the year along with a Twenty-plume Moth and a Small Dusty Wave.

Blastobasis adustella

Then last night I caught a tortix sp which this morning I identified as a Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix.

Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix

Both species have been recorded in the bathroom before.

As the sun came out from midday the Buddleia was attracting a good variety of butterflies. Two Commas, two Large Whites, a Small White, a Peacock, a Brimstone, and new for the year a Gatekeeper and a Painted Lady.

Gatekeeper

Painted Lady

The trap will be going out tonight, so I will try to get my next post done by Saturday evening.

Saturday July 14

As usual its taken me a few days to figure out what the moths I caught on Wednesday night were; a total of 86 moths of 36 species. JS is on holiday in Wales, so his response to my identifications, whilst generally positive, is also a work in progress.

I had been waiting for an array of pots to arrive (for calming moths in the fridge...they apparently don't mind, making it easier to photograph them) but by Wednesday there was no sign of them so I decided, half way through the England match, that if England won I would wait another day.

So I got on with it with my original stock. Peering into the box I could immediately see a species of Thorn, and on extracting it managed to identify it as a Dusky Thorn. Further examination of the egg boxes turned up two more. A quick look at my moth book told me that this species needs to be looked at closely to rule out similar species. This was to become a theme of the morning.

Dusky Thorn

Among several Common Footman moths in the trap I noticed a couple that were obviously paler and browner. I suspected they were something different and further research led me to identify them as Buff Footman. Once again there is an array of similar Footman species which need to be eliminated.

Buff Footman

A well patterned carpet moth turned out to be Common Carpet, also new for the year.

Common Carpet

Turning over one egg box I found myself looking at another carpet moth-type, which I assumed would be easy to identify later. Never assume. After initially picking out White-banded Carpet, I then discovered they were Nationally rare, so I turned the page and discovered the Rivulet, and also the Small Rivulet. I hadn't bothered to measure it, but fortunately there were enough other subtle features to reach a positive conclusion that it was a Small Rivulet.

Small Rivulet

Another nice looking moth I could see clinging to an egg box was new to me, a Scalloped Oak.

Scalloped Oak

Several micros were captured and photographed, but I will come to them later. My second Miller of the year was recorded but not photographed, as were two Coronets. Two other "Coronets" looked wrong, and I eventually worked out they were actually a species I recorded in the spring called Knot Grass. Like many moths they have a second generation in late summer.

Knot Grass

Resting on the opposite side of the perspex in the trap was a white moth. This turned out to be a male Yellow-tail, another tick of course.

Yellow-tail

I moved on to the egg cartons on the other side of the box. So far in every catch there has been a stand-out moth due to its sheer beauty, and in this case it was a Sallow Kitten.

Sallow Kitten

A quick flip through my moth book pointed me to Poplar Kitten, and I confidently wrote the name down before potting the moth to show to Lyn. It was only after I let it go that I read the text in the moth book which mentioned a smaller species called Sallow Kitten and said they were best separated by size. Further reading gave me some salvation as it also stressed a difference in the shape of one of the cross-lines and sure enough my moth was actually a Sallow Kitten. You can't even take the striking ones for granted!

Ironically a much more boring looking moth caused me fewer problems. I had tentatively identified it as a Pale Mottled Willow, but reference to the book told me it wasn't that, and led to the conclusion it was Dingy Shears, another moth that was completely new to me.

Dingy Shears

None of these new moths appears to be especially rare in Warwickshire, and I'm pleased to say that John has concurred with all my identifications.

Not so with the micro-moths, although I didn't do too badly. On holiday in Wales and away from any reference material, John was only able to agree with the following ones which I have captioned.

Cnephasia ag

Euzophera pinguis

Phycitodes binaevella

Mother of Pearl

The last of these shows that not all micro-moths are microscopic. In fact its bloody enormous.

The following moths were identified by me as respectively Eudemis profundana, and Oegoconia ag (possibly quadripuncta) but were not accepted as such by JS subject to further research by him when he gets home.

The following evening I grabbed a tiny micro in the bedroom, and subsequently identified it as a Case-bearing Clothes Moth.

Case-bearing Clothes Moth

And finally, I wasn't at all well last night, but frequent visits to the bathroom did have an upside as I potted five moths; Bright-line Brown-Eye, Riband Wave, Marbled Minor ag, Dun-bar, and Uncertain. None was new for the year.

However, going back to 12 July, one that was new for the year (because my previous one had been misidentified) was a Double Square-spot. Fortunately I photographed it.

Double Square-spot

Thanks to David Brown for the identification.