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.