Rhoose Point 27/5

Just got round to posting a couple of pics from 27/5 - nice to see both Lime and Poplar Hawkmoths in the trap.

New for the year were:

• Cinnabar
• Grey Dagger/Dark Dagger Agg.
• Epiblema cynosbatella
• Knot Grass
• Homoeosoma sinuella

Also of note were a couple of Diamond-back moths and 15 Cream-spot Tigers.

Senghenydd

Last night's GMS produced 11 species: E. postvittana, Common Carpet (3), Brown Silver-line (4), Brimstone Moth, Scalloped Hazel, (3), White Ermine (2), Heart and Dart, Broom Moth, Marbled White Spot, Ingrailed Clay and Marbled Beauty, the last 2 were new for the year.

Cwmbach

I was able to run my garden trap, last night, resulting in seven species, they being: Brown Silver-line, Peppered Moth of an intermediate form that was almost f. insularia; Poplar Hawk-moth, Small Elephant Hawk-moth Pale Prominent, Pale Tussock and Treble-lines.

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Coed Cae Pica last night

25 species to 20W actinic including Pebble Hook-tip (2), Grey Birch, Devon Carpet, May Highflyer (3), Scalloped Hazel (3), Broom Moth , Knot Grass and my first Heart and Dart of the year. Just 2 micros - Syndemis musculana and Elachista argentella.

Nantyffyllon

                                Egg laying Fox moth.

Penarth

At my feeble actinic last night, not many spp but 2 new for the garden:

Light Brocade

Swallow Prominent

I'm pretty sure the above is SP rather than Lesser SP due to length of the white wedge on the trailing edge of the forewing, but feel free to correct :-)

Llangynwyd last night

                                                      MV light

                        22 species including this Sandy carpet, Scorched wing,
                        Sharp angled peacock, Scalloped hazel, Argyresthia
                        conjugella and 10 Marbled brown.

Micros

To celebrate the arrival of the new British Wildlife micro book through my letter box yesterday, here are a few recent micro photos. The book is excellent, particularly the illustrations - well worth ordering even if you only have a passing interest in micros. My only criticism - a few of the maps are a bit out of date, quite a few species present in VC41 are not shown as being present here on the maps.

Cedestis subfasciella, Llandaff North

Mompha raschkiella, Swansea

Celypha lacunana, reared from Hailey Park

Metzneria metzneriella, reared from Knapweed, Hailey Park

Nantyffyllon

                            Coleophora albicosta

                           Cochylimorpha straminea

                            Bucculatrix nigricomella.
                                A total of 25 species to the 22W actinic last night inc
                                2 Heart and dart, Common swift, Fox moth, Purple
                                bar, Coxcomb prominent, Pebble hook tip, Devon
                                carpet and May highflyer. More photos on -
                                http://llynfivalleynature.blogspot.co.uk/

Gorseinon

24 species in the garden trap this morning, the highlight being 2 Seraphims. This is only the second time I've recorded it here, the first being on 18 May 1997 when again there were 2 individuals. There a few Aspen clumps scattered around Gorseinon, so I guess we only see this species when the wind blows in the right direction at the just the right time - not sure how else you explain multiple captures 15 years apart? New species for the year were Willow Beauty, Yellow-barred Brindle, Sloe Pug, Coxcomb Prominent, Cream Wave, Light Emerald, Rustic Shoulder-knot and Vine's Rustic.

Amelia farm pics

Campion

Gold Swift

Wood Carpet rather than Common Carpet?

Bactra lacteana/lanceolana?

Syndemis musculana?

Add caption

Dichrorampha acuminatana?

 

I can see a number of possibilities for this one including Epinotia tedella, Epinotia nanana, and Ancylis subarcuana.  Are any of those correct?





















Completely stumped by this one.  Can anyone help?

Alun Valley (26th May)

SS9175

First outing with the generator in a long time resulted in a great catch of 54 species in two and a half hours, on a sultry night. An excellent range of geometrids but hardly any noctuids. Highlights were Little Thorn (3, new SS97), Little Emerald (3), Scorched Carpet, Square-spot, Orange Footman, Lead Belle and Barred Umber.

Little Thorn

Little Emerald

Scorched Carpet

Also lots of micros new for SS97, an under-recorded square: Micropterix tunbergella, Capua vulgana, Syndemis musculana, Blastobasis lacticolella and Monopis weaverella.

Llanrhidian

2 MV traps left overnight at Llanrhidian last night produced 48 species including 2 Light Brown Apple Moths (23 at home the night before, so back up in number compared to previous years), Epinotia tedella, Figure of Eighty, Small Seraphim, 3 Least Black Arches, 25 Flame Shoulders (commonest species), 13 Dog's-teeth (tooth's?!), Campion, Coronet and Nicrophorus vespillo (at least I think so, as there a few yellow hairs towards the rear of the thorax [not very clear in this photo, but clearly attached hairs and not scales under a lens]). Hind tibia only mildly curved, but apparently this is often the case with vespillo). 14 Cockchafers.

Nicrophorus vespillo

PS. No Heart and Darts at Llanrhidian, but 5 at home the night before.

Cwmbach GMS and Field Trapping in Merthyr Tydfil

A minimum of 15.30 C overnight was warm enough to overcome some of the negative effects of the stiff Easterly breeze, so I had fifteen species in the trap, including Diamond-back Moth, Nut-tree Tussock, Scalloped Hazel and Buff Tip, plus the burying beetle Nicrophorus humator and a single Cockchaffer. Also in there were a fresh Common Quaker and a Clouded Drab.

Yesterday evening, Mike Hogan and I ran our traps, from 22:00 to almost 01:00, in a sheltered spot, on the hillside to the S.East of Merthyr Tydfil. It was nice to be able to get out in the field after such a slow and unsettled season. The list for the two traps has yet to be worked out, but I expect the species total to be around thirty. The highlights for me included Incurvaria masculella and Alder Moth.

                                                            Incurvaria masculella

                                                                      Alder Moth
I've had a few problems identifying three moths I photographed at the trap, in Merthyr, last night, so if anyone can come up with some I.D suggestions, I'd be most grateful.

                                      Can anyone confirm that this is Carpatolechia proximella?

Apologies for the poor photo, but I was trying to hold the egg box at the right angle with my left hand and use my SLR single handedly with my right. Any ideas.

This Tort looks easy, at first glance, but I just cannot come to any firm conclusion about it. Could it be Epiblema costipunctata?

GMS Llandaff North

A very disappointing GMS catch considering a minimum temperature of 15 C, though it was quite windy. 10 species recorded, highlights being Lime Hawk, Common Swift and Epiblema rosaecolana.

Where are all the Heart and Darts this year? I haven't had one yet - this time last year I was getting 40 a night! All noctuids seem very thin on the ground - just a Flame Shoulder last night.

Amelia Trust Farm, Barry

First time trapping in woodlands and wet meadow at the Amelia Trust Farm on 24/5.  Conditions were very warm and humid, giving not only a good catch of moths, but also cockchafers (over 20) and ichneumonid wasps.  Picking large beetles off my clothes and hair soon lost its novelty...

However, that was more than made up for by the abundance of moths.  30 identified species in total taken in a little over 2 hours (it took a long time to get dark!). Things new for the year and highlights included:

• 23 Green Carpet
• 12 Small Phoenix
• 3 Scalloped Hazel
• 1 female Gold Swift
• 5 Clouded Silver
• 3 Silver-ground Carpet
• 4 White Ermine
• 2 Common Wave
• 1 Straw Dot
• 1 The Campion
• 1 Wood Carpet
• 2 Rivulet
• Bactra lancealana/lacteana
• Ancylis geminana/diminutana

There are a couple of micros still in the fridge that I need to look at, and I will try to pop a few photos up tomorrow.

Interestingly I didn't see a single Light Brown Apple Moth.

The Farm is an educational charity with about 40 acres of mature woodland and quite varied habitat. I will probably be returning later in the summer.

Roath Central

Trapping overnight produced 9 spp. inc. Small Dusty Wave & Marbled Orchard Totrix. However the highlight was my highest count for E. postvittana, 50, the best count by ten in twenty years of trapping and 3rd highest VC41.
Highlights of GMRG survey at Bosch 23/05 were Devon Carpet & Scorched Wing. 19 species being recorded on the night.

Nantyffyllon.

                         Aspilapteryx tringipennella (2)

                          Dichrorampha montanana (4) plus D. acuminatana (6)

                           Micropterix aruncella (5)

                         Coleophora sp....
                         I was also delighted to find a Dingy skipper, which is new for
                         the square and the first i have seen in the Llynfi valley since the
                         loss of the Paper mills colony in the mid '90s. Also seen were
                         single Small copper and Common blue.

ID help

Not sure if this is Monopis laevigella or weaverella?

Roath Central

Not much in the trap last couple of days, highlights being a Muslin Moth (22nd) & Treble Lines this am, however I have caught a Diamond-back Moth this afternoon in the garden - Portland BO have noted good numbers over the last few days. I only had 4 records in 2011 for this species.

A decent catch at last!

I had to travel to Coed Cae Pica for it though. 17 species to 20 watt actinic, 12 were new for the year, including Grey Birch, Yellow-barred Brindle and Coronet. Still not getting much in the garden - just 5 species in the trap this morning with Beautiful Snout and Pebble Prominent (2) new for the year. Very disappointing considering that I trapped all night and the temp was a healthy 10C when I got back from Coed Cae Pica at 1am.

Nantyffyllon this morning

                                     Elachista argentella

                                      Dichrorampha acuminatana.

Garnwen, Maesteg.

2 Ancylis badiana and one Epinotia tedella yesterday.

Roath Central

My first trap since 31st March in garden produced 8 species, highlights Yellow-barred Brindle, Peppered Moth (nominate form) & P. aurata. Had P. filicivora in house on 19th and a Dark-green Fritillery on Cefn Cadlan (RCT, VC42) on 18.v.12. Lets hope this decent bit of warm weather gets things going.

Species count to date

Since things are beginning to pick up (slightly) I thought I'd post my current species figures to show how it compares to previous years:

Year    Species    Trap Nights

2006     44             15
2007     91             58
2008     73             57
2009     47             33
2010     79             47
2011     107           36
2012     45             52

So there you have it - it's been a poor season so far!

Alun Valley yesterday

Cream Wave (2), Small P-B Fritillary (4), Dingy Skipper (2), Crambus lathoniellus, Incurvaria masculella and Hysterophora maculosana (3). The latter two micros are new for SS97 I think.

Cream Wave

Incurvaria masculella

Hysterophora maculosana

Cefnpennar

I was out really early, so couldn't run my trap, last night but while I was out all morning and actually saw three leps. The first, an unidentified micro was seen in the heather while doing a Breeding Bird Survey on Mynydd Merthyr, but it had disappeared before I could get a pot and my reading glasses out of my pocket. The second was a more definite Common Heath, seen along a forest ride, above Cefnpennar and the last was a Small White, by my car, at Cefnpennar Uchaf. I also saw my first Green Tiger Beetles of the year, up in the forestry.

The weather for the week ahead is looking good, so I'm crossing my fingers for a decent catch on Friday night, for the GMS.

Senghenydd

Well chuffed to find this beauty in the trap this morning - my first ever Mullein.

Parc slip, Tondu.

                                         Yellow belle

                                           Mother shipton

                                          Dingy skipper

                                            Coleophora sp.