Thursday August 30

Normally on a Thursday morning I am sifting through my moth catch, picking out the ones which are new for the year, or which I don't recognise, ready to scrawl through the internet before sending images to JS for verification.

Not this morning. A busy social calendar this weekend meant that my only opportunity to catch moths was last night. Temperatures dropped to around six degrees, making it a terrible night for mothing.

In a bid to liven things up, I had the idea of draping a sheet (the back of some old curtains) over the shed.

This did at least mean that I was able to nip out at regular intervals during the evening to see if the plan was working. It did attract a few moths, including a probable Garden Carpet (wings held closed skywards) which I neglected to pot for confirmation, only to find that it disappeared later.

This morning I decided to err on the side of caution and to assume that any moths no longer on the sheet had found their way into the trap. This meant that my total stood at a paltry 29 moths of 14 species plus a caddis fly and three wasps.

None of the moths was new for the year. The highlights were finding three Centre-barred Sallows, and a Least Yellow Underwing (second of the year).

In fact, potentially my most interesting find was made on the internet at work (at lunchtime - in case one of my bosses should stumble on this blog). An image of a Pandemis cinnamomeana matched that of a tortrix species I had accidentally photographed in the trap on August 17 when it happened to be sitting next to a Yellow Shell. When I got home I had a closer look at the original photograph and concluded it appeared to have a white head, which should make it the aforementioned species.

Possible P cinnamomeana or corylana

I have sent the shot off to JS, and await his verdict with interest.

And the verdict is: it's a poor photograph of what could be cinnamomeana or could just be Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix. JS ran it past his mates in the St Agnes moth group who made the point it looks as though the white on the head is a little too extensive (which I totally agree with), and so it cannot be definitely identified from the photo.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Monday August 27

Its a bird ! A Hobby flew over our garden and I was returning from the paper shop just in time to see it.

Makes a change from moths.

Friday August 24

My cunning plan to put the moth trap out on the relatively warm Wednesday night notwithstanding the forecast of a period of heavy rain in the early hours paid off pretty well. I caught 106 moths of about 33 species, and most of them were macros. Brown ones.

The two species to feature heavily were one macro and one micro, namely Large Yellow Underwing (23), and Agriphila geniculea (18). Also into double figures were 10 Flounced Rustics, while just missing out were six Square-spot Rustics, and five Vine's Rustics.

The underside of the rain-splattered perspex lid of one side of the trap supported my first "new" moth. A Centre-barred Sallow was the only Sallow species I have ever seen, and the count was augmented when I later discovered another in an egg-box.

Centre-barred Sallow

Each egg-box revealed around half a dozen brown macro moths and usually a few micros. So I had to look carefully to try to pick out anything new. One of the first, although I had been expecting one, was a Lesser Yellow Underwing in among the Large Yellows.

Lesser Yellow Underwing

This is quite a common moth, and I have frequently caught examples in the bathroom in previous years.

Another box revealed my other "new" moth. Sadly this one was a bit battered, and wasn't much to look at, but it was still my first Mouse Moth. A little later I found a second, also rather tatty, hiding in the box.

Mouse Moth

A little bit of research confirmed what I had suspected, that neither of the new moths was at all scarce in Warwickshire.

Back in the spring I painted the trap white as I was assured it would improve the catch. No doubt it has, but it also means that it is that much harder to spot any whitish moths therein. So it was quite late in the morning when I spotted a Common Wave spreadeagled on the side of the box.

Common Wave

I think I once caught one in the bathroom (although its just possible it could have been a Common White Wave), so this one was almost a tick.

Not all the moths in the egg boxes were a challenge. I caught two Orange Swifts, and a Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Orange Swift

Orange Swift

Setaceous Hebrew Character

The Orange Swifts are both shown to demonstrate that some are not at all orange in colour, while the Setaceous Hebrew Character may not be the best moth in that photograph. Resting next to it is a tiny micro which I think could be Oegoconia ag (possibly caradjai), however the books stress that this group of three moths can only be identified with a microscope, and the last one I identified was reidentified by JS as a Bryotropha domestica. So I don't have high hopes for it.

Micros are becoming a bit of a pain actually. Trying to identify them takes up a lot of time and when you do reach a conclusion you often find that genitalia examination is required for certainty. A good example of this came with a couple of Ermines found in the trap. They were not Bird-cherry Ermines,   so that leaves the possibilities of Orchard Ermine, Apple Ermine, and Spindle Ermine.

Given the presence of a bloody great apple tree in our garden I think they are likely to be Apple Ermines. I have previously recorded Orchard Ermine, which are greyer (per JS), and although these look a bit grey in the photos I think that is just shadow because they looked pretty white to me.

I spent ages on another micro which I eventually decided was a worn Cydia splendana and therefore not even new for the year.

Cydia splendana

One last moth year-tick was the excellent Ypsolopha scabrella. Unfortunately my photograph of it was so bad, that I can't bring myself to post it. I'll just have to catch another one.

No sign of the Hedgehog though.

Wednesday August 22

Whilst I was slaving away at work this afternoon, Lyn glanced out of the kitchen window and did a double-take. For there on the lawn, for the first time in at least five years, was a Hedgehog.

Hedgehog

In previous posts I have lamented the decline in numbers of our local Hedehogs. For the first few years from our arrival in 2004 we would see them almost every year. On one occasion two were having a Hedgehog stand-off in the back garden with much angry snorting. But since about 2010 nothing, other than the odd flattened corpse. Even the dead ones were dying-out!

I suppose it could be a concern that it is out at in daylight, but with rain forecast tonight it could be quids in slug-wise.

As for me, I have trapped the odd moth in the bathroom, but nothing that was new. The full tally is as follows: one Square-spot Rustic, three Double-striped Pugs, and one Agriphila geniculea.

My sexton beetle (trapped at the weekend) has been confirmed as N investigator. I keep forgetting how to spell the latin name that the N is an abbreviation of.

So tonight the trap goes out again. I hope the Hedgehog doesn't develop a taste for moths, although it's welcome to the wasps.

Friday August 17

After a week when the bathroom highlight was four Double-striped Pugs and a Willow Beauty on Tuesday evening, I decided to put the trap out on the relatively mild Wednesday night despite the forecast of rain for the following morning.

Overnight a Double-striped Pug found its way into the kitchen while a quick look at the trap (I can never resist) allowed me to see, and nearly step on, a Mother of Pearl. Neither would feature in the trap the following morning.

So rain it did, and I was faced with a logistical problem of keeping the trap relatively dry while I lifted egg boxes out to examine their contents. I came up with the idea of sheltering the trap under a large umbrella while transporting the moths, egg-box at a time, through the house to the front porch. Any that looked new could be potted for a photograph later.

I quickly discovered four Agriphila geniculea, not strictly new because I briefly saw one last week. But new for the year to the camera.

Agriphila geniculea

Mercifully there weren't too many micros in the trap, and those that were looked pretty familiar. I found two Codling Moths, and was able to engineer a photograph which shows the massive size range within the species.

Codling Moths

The big one has a blob of rainwater on its head.

The macros were primarily noctuids i.e boring big brown ones. This group is starting to rival Pugs as my bete noir. They tend to look the same as one another, and many of the same species vary within the species to a considerable degree. A good case in point is one of the commonest, Large Yellow Underwing. Most of the ones I catch are plain dark brown or light brown, but some are scarily different. Back in June I caught a moth which I considered was either a Double-Square Spot or a Triple-spotted Clay. I went for the former as the latter was rare. In July I caught another, and this one looked less ambiguously a Double Square-spot. A couple of week ago David Brown, the Warwickshire moth recorder, wrote an article on the separation of these species for the journal Atropos. I decided to email him my photographs of the two moths for verification. It turned out that the July one was indeed a Double Square-spot, but the June one was a Large Yellow Underwing!

This was very embarrassing. For any birders reading this, a good analogy would be sending off a photograph of a possible Marsh Warbler to Killian Mullarney, only to be told it was actually a Lesser Whitethroat.

Thank God I have no aspirations to be any good at this moth malarky.

Anyway back to the catch. Alongside the aforementioned Large Yellow Underwings, and familiar species groups like Common Rustic ag and Copper Underwing ag were some that were new for the year. A Square-spot Rustic was one I had been expecting. The bathroom often trapped one or two in the autumn, and they always caused me trouble. On this occasion I caught two (one of which I thought was a worn Rustic until JS put me right).

Square-spot Rustic

A Vine's Rustic was my second this year, as was a Flounced Rustic. A very smart Coronet came as a surprise, and a couple of Small Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings were nice to see. Back at the trap after the rain had abated I prised another brown moth from its hiding place. This had a vague look of the SBBYU just mentioned, but it didn't look the same. Once I had potted it I remained puzzled because the underside didn't appear coloured yellow. Eventually however I decided it could be a Least Yellow Underwing. I cannot recall seeing one before, but they are not rare.

Least Yellow Underwing

I was pleased, on releasing it, to see the bright yellow and black upper surface of the hind wing revealed as it flew off. JS has verified the identification.

One egg box did reveal a nice moth. Bright orange, though quite small, and I recognised it as a species of Swift. Minimal research confirmed it was an Orange Swift, an example of which I caught in the bathroom a few years ago.

Orange Swift

The same egg carton also turned up my second Light Emerald of the year, the last being in June. Back at the moth trap I could see another pretty one gleaming at me. This was a Yellow Shell, a species I have recorded in the bathroom and also at Morton Bagot in previous years.

Yellow Shell on right (Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix on left)

The underside of the umbrella had attracted a rather nice little moth which I knew I had to photograph. It turned out to be a Yellow-barred Brindle, a species I have only caught in the bathroom once, a few years ago.

Yellow-barred Brindle

They can be yellowish, but often, like this one, they are not.

Continued examination of the apparently empty trap kept turning up more moths. A horribly worn Thorn (I decided it was a Dusky Thorn) was resting on the outside of the box. A very nicely marked Cloaked Minor was persuaded into view. I caught it but then lost it without taking a photograph.

Finally an amazingly boring-looking micro was winkled out of its hiding place. Unlike the preceding species it was very cooperative, and happily sat still in a catching tube while I got a few shots.

Bryotropha terrella

It was a Bryotropha terrella, and was definitely a tick. JS has agreed the identification, and tells me he gets a few up to the end of August in his Solihull garden.

I always get other insects in the box, but rarely try to identify them. However, if they are spectacular enough I have a go. Among all the Common Wasps (there were about a dozen) I found a startlingly large Sexton Beetle and a rather nice Hawthorn Shieldbug. After cocking up the last similar looking shieldbug I now know what to look for, and was quite certain of this one.

Sexton Beetle sp (possibly N investigator)

Hawthorn Shieldbug

I haven't been able to find an image which precisely matches the Sexton Beetle, so I will just have to hope that whoever looks at beetles for irecord is able to let me know what it is.

Sorry about the continuing lack of bird records. On the way to the shop I stepped over a sad roadside casualty in the form of a Dunnock. Probably more interesting to the Sexton Beetle than to any birders.

Thursday August 9

After some heavy showers yesterday evening and the passage of a cold front dropping the temperatures back to the seasonal normal I decided I would still put the trap out to see what I could catch.

Three moths in the bathroom were a Heart and Dart, and two grass moths; A tristella and A straminella. Meanwhile the kitchen window gave me an opportunity to see the diagnostic underwing of a Copper Underwing.

Copper Underwing

This morning I found three Willow Beauties clinging to the trap and the house, and then started exploring the contents of the trap itself.

One thing that was immediately apparent was the presence of several Common Wasps. Fortunately they were just as dozy as the moths, so I just had to be careful when picking up the egg cartons.

The first new moth was a Setaceous Hebrew Character, one of two found. This is a common moth (still a tick for me though) in Warwickshire.

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Next up was a species I did not recognise at all. I potted it and eventually discovered it was a Six-striped Rustic. Again, this appears to be a fairly common species (even though I had never heard of it).

Six-striped Rustic

Another egg-box produced another new moth, but this time only new for the year, a Flounced Rustic.

Flounced Rustic

I later discovered a similar-sized, but rather worn, brown moth which I initially thought was Common Rustic ag, but may actually be another Flounced Rustic or maybe something else altogether. I am hoping JS will come up with a solution.

PS: JS has told me that it was actually a Common Rustic ag, and commented that its small size puts it in the frame for Lesser Common Rustic, but you just can't be sure without getting an expert to examine its privates with a microscope. Here's a picture of it:

possible Lesser Common Rustic

Meanwhile I found what I initially identified as a pristine Rustic. However it was a bit smaller than the illustration in my book, while it matched another species. In fact, the internet images also pointed to what is, if I am correct, a somewhat scarce moth. A Vine's Rustic. JS may yet have a say as the problem is that size is not important, but greyness is, when contrasting it to the similar Rustic.

Vine's Rustic

It looks pretty grey to me.

The final surprise in the trap was a Poplar Hawk Moth. My third this year, but the first hawkmoth for about a month.

Poplar Hawk Moth

While I was extracting the last few boxes, a micro flew out and landed on the ivy trailing up the shed. I had a quick look at it, and recognised it as an Agriphila geniculea. Unfortunately I have no evidence to back up my claim of this moth, which was the first of the year, as it took off and flew to the upper branches of the apple tree before I could get the camera.

I started releasing the catch, and unwittingly disturbed a species of carpet moth from the entry. It flew to the shed where I managed a shot before it disappeared into the ivy. It looked a well patterned moth and I identified it as a Red Twin-spot Carpet, a species which I think I may have seen before in the garden. However, my book warned me of the possibility of the "red form" of Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet. So I went back out and brushed the ivy which flushed the moth in the direction of the vibernum.

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Unfortunately it then flew off and with hindsight I should have potted it because the diagnostic absence of a notch on the inner edge of the red wing band is hard to see. In fact, it could just have a notch on one wing (just not a very obvious one). This may be another one for JS to pronounce upon.

During the afternoon I spotted an attractive little bug on the dining room window. An internet search came up with the suggestion of Rhopalus subrufus.

Rhopalus subrufus

I have submitted it to irecord, so if the identification needs to be amended I will update accordingly.

PS: Identification confirmed.

Friday August 3

With the temperature warming up again I was keen to get the moth-trap out. I had to pass on Wednesday night, so I was left to rely on a clear moonlit Thursday evening to produce what it could.

In the event the numbers of moths and species were down a little on last week. I pulled 66 moths of 32 species from the trap (including one or two in the bathroom), but nearly all were species I had seen previously this year.

There were some exceptions though. A rather pretty little moth featured prominently, there being four Marbled Beauty moths on show. I am pretty sure I have seen this species in previous years, but certainly not this year.

Marbled Beauty

Marbled Beauty

This appears to be a reasonably common moth in Warwickshire and is particularly associated with urban areas.

The methodical processing of the moths was a little less phrenetic than usual due to the presence of a couple of wasps in the trap, but eventually I found something completely new. I settled on a species called Lunar Spotted Pinion.

Lunar Spotted Pinion

This is quite a small macro, and I soon discovered that the key feature to distinguish it from Lesser Spotted Pinion is the colour of the hindwing (brown in Lunar, black in Lesser). Although I had retained the moth in a pot, no amount of tapping or nudging would induce it to show the feature. I suspect that JS will pick up on this when I get his feedback, but one other "feature" coloured my identification. In Warwickshire (by 2005) Lunar was described as widespread and fairly common, while Lesser was almost extinct due to the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease on its main foodplant.

Not long after this discovery I found my first new micro. This was a female Small China-mark and was fairly easy to identify. After it was released it chose to land next to a Black Arches which had been resting on the fence all morning.

Small China-mark (on the left)

The books tell me that Small China-mark is common in England and that its caterpillar is aquatic, feeding on Duckweed from a case of its own making. Presumably the adult had got here from Ipsley Alders half a mile away.

My final new micro was a rather smaller moth which I have decided is Cryptoblabes bistriga. The identification of this pyralid is very much subject to ratification by JS.

Cryptoblabes bistriga

If it is this species, it is described as "local" in England and flies from mid-April to mid-September. The one in the pot was a little worn, but I haven't found anything else that matched its appearance.

Other moths caught included five Copper Underwing ags (none of which would pose on my finger to allow a view of its underwing, and one of which did look a tiny bit less strikingly marked), a Canary-shouldered Thorn, three Dusky Thorns, an Oak Hook-tip, three worn small Pugs which were probably too far gone even for JS to identify for me, and a somewhat worn Cloaked Minor.

Cloaked Minor

Other insects in the pot included a large diving beetle sp, an Ichneumon Wasp sp, a couple of small Caddisflies, and two Shieldbugs. PS After misidentifying the green one as a Hawthorn Shieldbug (after a somewhat cursory glance at a laminated identification guide) the value of the irecord website was proven when an expert spotted my mistake. It was actually a Birch Shieldbug.

Red-legged Shieldbug

Birch Shieldbug

One final thing about the moths seen. I caught three Mother of Pearls, one of which showed identical damage to its right wing as one which had entered the bathroom three nights ago. This suggests that it was pretty much resident in the garden.