Nantyffyllon today.

Freshly emerged Psychoides verhuella on Wall-rue. These breed on the wall of my flat and the first one i saw was on 25th May, a very early date. I usually see the first one around 7th June. Apologies for using flash but it was very dull. Will take more later.

Rhoose Point - 29/5

These are the other new species from 29th.

Not sure what this one is, can anyone help? There is a raised scale tuft behind the head. Moth is about 8mm long.

Straw Dot

Light Arches

Shoulder-striped Wainscot (a real one this time!)

Small Blood-vein

Cochylis sp

This is the possible Cochylis molliculana. Sorry about the poor photo, but daylight is short supply, and I'm reluctant to let it out of the tube in case I spend half the night chasing it round the house!

Having looked at it in a bit more detail this afternoon, the colouration of the head and thorax(orangey brown) ruled out both C atricapitana and C hybridella for me, which are dark and whitish respectively. That leaves C molliculana as the likely candidate unless I have gone badly off the rails!

Would be good to hear what you think Dave. Let me know if you want me to get the specimen to you.

Llandaff North 29th May

First good catch for a while last night, with 33 species in all. Highlight was Argyresthia cupressella new for the site (as far as I know this is the 3rd VC41 site after Jake's and Chris's gardens). Also second garden record of Pandemis cinnamomeana, plus Spruce Carpet, Pine Carpet, Middle-barred Minor and Heart & Club.

Rhoose Point 29/5

40 identified species from last night, plus a few that I will post photos of later with queries. New moths include Straw Dot, Tinea semifulvella, Light Arches, Small Blood-vein, Lime-speck Pug, Clay and what looks like Cochylis molliculana or hybridella. NBN gateway suggests molliculana could be a county (and Wales) first if confirmed? We have a lot of the foodplant of hybridella locally (bristly ox-tongue). Once my wife returns from Liverpool with the camera I will load up a photo!

Garnwen, Maesteg.

Gold swift.

Maresteg park today.

Micropterix aruncella.
Glyphipterix forsterella.

Jake's Plusia update

Having examined Jake's mystery Plusia, with my library to hand, I am happy that it is just a Silver Y (ab bipartita).

Roath (central)

Took a Dark Arches on 25/05, the first May record in my garden [552 records, 1994-2011]. I noticed one on 21/05/11 from Rhoose [AM]. According to the GMRG database only 29 records for May, with the earliest 17th May at Gorseinon 2002 [BS & SS]. The wonders of datasets and warm springs!

updated post

I've added the pictures as promised: here

Rhoose Point Pt2

I'm having trouble pinning these down. Any help gratefully recieved!




Initial thought is that this could be a dark variant of Heart and Dart, (it's darker than the pic appears) but it is a lot smaller than the other H&D's that I have seen, and just doesn't look quite right!







Tentatively pinned this down as Metzneria metzneriella











Thought this might be another Gelechiidae, but struggling a bit!

No idea whatsoever!

Thanks!

Adam

Rhoose Point

35 species on Tuesday night, including 45 Heart and Dart. 7 new for the year. Highlights in pics below;

Green Carpet
Shoulder-striped Wainscot
Barred Yellow
Peppered Moth
Cream-spot Tiger

Second post to follow with queries in!

Plusia sp.#3

Dave, I have the moth still.
Silver Y?

Nantyffyllon yesterday.

Ectoedemia albifasciella.

Narycia duplicella

Ok, I won't be removing by Narycia duplicella records from the database after all, having just found two adults sitting on the trunk of a Lime tree (guess what I was looking for!). Also found the feeding signs of Chrysoclista linneella - the characteristic reddish frass described in the literature and on the UK-moths website.

Missing micro

Dave - I notice that 699 Agonopterix bipunctosa is missing off the micro-list.
Recorded 22 Jul 2006 on Burry Holms (D. Painter, V. Shenston, B. Stewart & S.J. Stewart)

Llanishen

Not an exciting catch last night, but the first minors of the year (all confirmed by dissection).

Tawny Marbled Minor

Marbled Minor

And a more 'obvious' Marbled Minor

And as I continue to link photos to the county list, here's an Ingrailed Clay.

Nantyffyllon yesterday.

Cydia nigricana.
Bucculatrix cidarella.
Small pearl bordered fritilliary.
Also - Small fan foot 2, Eupoecilia angustana 5, Elachista subalbidella 2, Neofaculta ericetella 3 and Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 10+ beaten from Field maple.

Rhoose Point

18 species on Friday night, mostly the usual suspects. New species include Homoeosoma sinuella, and the two below:



I have spent some time going through the books looking for this one, but other than thinking it may be a Brocade, I haven't been able to pin it down. It's a big-ish moth with wingspan about 40mm.

This one I am pretty sure is Crambus lathionellus?

If anyone can help out with id - especially the macro - I would be grateful!

Adam

Psychid cases

While unsuccessfully searching for Denisia in Cardiff yesterday I did find psychid cases in two locations, one being just round the corner from my house. I think these are Luffia ferchaultella, which is the only species I've seen in VC41, though Dave has recorded Narycia dupliciella in Cardiff.










































How this species, which supposedly only exists in the adult form as wingless females, colonises suburban street trees is beyond me!

Nantyffyllon today.

Lampronia luzella. Tapped from sallow, a new moth for me.
Phyllonorycter hilarella. Tapped from Sallow.
Epinotia tedella. Tapped from Pine.
I'm calling this Gypsonoma dealbana. Looks like an odd one though...
Also - Dark barred twin spot carpet, Small fan foot, Argyresthia conjugella, Celypha lacunana and Eupoecilia angustana.

Quite a story...

Shortly after taking my seat on the Cardiff-Swansea train this morning I noticed a small colourful micro fluttering around me. Fortunately I had a pot in my rucksack and the lady sat opposite was too engrossed in her book to notice me searching for the moth beneath the table. Luckily it had alighted on my rucksack and was easy to pot.

The moth seems to be Denisia albimaculea, which, according to my version of the county database, hasn't been recorded in VC41 (or Wales?) since a 1934 record by Hallett from central Cardiff which is regarded as questionable.

The question is - what was the origin of the moth? The train had come from Crewe, and the moth could potentially have hopped aboard on the way, but I think it's more likely it landed on me as I cycled through Bute Park to the station, as it was flying around me as I took off my ruscksack on the train. What do you think Dave - can I count it as a Glamorgan record?? I'm going to have a look on lime trunks (the larval foodplant) in Bute Park tomorrow if the weather's ok.

I don't think it's the similar (but rarer) D augustella, but have kept the specimen just in case.

Kenfig castle area today.

Adela fibulella.
Adela croesella.
Also good numbers of Grass rivulets and Crambus lathionellus, Clouded border 1, Sandy carpet 1, Scoparia pyralella 5, Hedya pruniana 2, Endothenia marginana 1, Cinnabar 6, Mother shipton 1, Burnet companion 4, Adela cuprella 3 and one Opsibotys fuscalis.

Rhoose Point

The first calm (but nippy!) night for a week or two gave a reasonable catch of 23 species. New for the year include Shoulder-stripe Wainscot, Epiblema uddmannia, Garden Pebble and the 4 below which I am not sure about.




Other than thinking this is a Tortrix I am a bit stumped!












This is a side view of the above.













I can see a number of possibilities for this including Grey or Light Grey Tortrix, but again not sure.










I think this may be a Tawny Marbled Minor. 3 of these arrived last night, all with a distinctly different colouration (a greeny bronze which is lost in the photo) from the Marbled Minors that I have been seeing recently. Certainly it is the right size.







Again, not sure, but possibly a Caloptilia?

If anyone can shed any light on these, I would be very grateful!

Adam