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.
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| Possible P cinnamomeana or corylana |
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.
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