Friday June 15

Last night was fairly clear and warmish, and it was perhaps because it wasn't as warm as last weekend that I only caught half as many moths.

Nevertheless there were still 39 moths of 16 species.

The highlights were several personal firsts, a Blotched Emerald, a probable Double Square-spot (JS has counselled me that I should have checked the colour of it's underwing to rule out the scarcer Triple-spotted Clay) but didn't spot that it was actually a Large Yellow Underwing (my thanks to David Brown for the re-dentification) and two Heart and Clubs.

Blotched Emerald

Large Yellow Underwing

Heart and Club

Heart and Club

The Heart and Club is quite a scarce moth locally, and JS had not had any experience of them. For this reason I sought a second opinion from MS and he has concurred.

A rather easier macro was my first Barred Yellow of the year.

Barred Yellow

Other macros were 15 Heart and Darts, a Buff Ermine, and my second Ingrailed Clay of the year.

Ingrailed Clay

So to micros. The first two were found in the bathroom, and one of those was a rather early Aleimma loeflingiana. As they apparently mainly emerge in July I was half expecting it to be ruled out by JS, but it seems I was correct.

Aleimma loeflingiana

The other micro was the first of three Plum Tortrix moths to be recorded. The following morning I found three Scoparia ambigualis moths, another species I had never heard of. I was a little unsure that the three moths were the same species but I eventually decided that they were, and I am pleased to say that my identifications have been adjudged correct.

Scoparia ambigualis

The other micros were all ones I have seen before; two Bee Moths, a Crambus pascuella, a Celypha lacunana (awaiting verification), two Codling Moths, and a Chrysoteuchia culmella.

Chrysoteuchia culmella

I spent much of the morning hiding the moths from hungry Robins, with mixed success.

One mothy post script concerns a moth I had seen in the bathroom during a 02.00 visit. My two pots were occupied by micros so the macro concerned was left to cling to the bathroom window. The following morning it had disappeared, but that night it reappeared and was potted.

The next morning it was examined and its identity was uncertain, or to be more accurate either The Uncertain or a Rustic. Both have been identified in previous years (rightly or wrongly), but I wanted to get this one sussed.

Rustic

The Uncertain is said to emerge a little earlier than Rustic, and although I tentatively decided it was the latter I was pleased to hear from JS that he agrees it looks more like a Rustic.