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.