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.