Merthyr mawr leaf mines.

                 Stigmella spinosissimae on Burnet rose.

                 Stigmella spinosissimae, underside.

                 Phyllonorycter strigulatella on Grey alder.
                 + underside below.  Both are uncommon but hopefully my IDs are correct.

Abercregan last night.

                          Pink barred sallow

                         Frosted orange

                         Merveille du jour

                        Yellow line quaker.
                        15 species in all, despite some very heavy showers. Red line
                         quaker, Flounced chestnut, Red green carpet, Black rustic and at
                         least 40 carpet sp, predominantly Spruce.

Merveille du Jour - more images

A very obliging Merveille du Jour, which loitered in the flower beds after being released after dark..

Stigmella filipendulae

I was at Ty-du Moors SSSI near Capel Llanilltern this morning when the eagle eyes of Sam Bosanquet spotted some tenanted leaf mines on meadowsweet. These look good for Stigmella filipendulae (formerly S. ulmariae, but now lumped in with the dropwort-feeding S. filipendulae).

There is only one previous confirmed VC41 record, from Lieutenant Colonel Maitland Emmet's famous visit to Plymouth Woods, St Fagans with Dave Slade in 1997. There is also an unconfirmed adult record of S. filipendulae from Cardiff.

Tuesday 27th - Llandaff

A rather cool night, but at least it was a dry one.

A small but varied selection and another first for the garden.

A Centre-barred Sallow, Pink-barred Sallow, Snout x 5, Large Ranunculus x 2 and new species to the garden, a rather pale The Vestal. Will upload some photos later.

 Any thoughts on this Pug? Grey?

Creigiau last night

Another quiet night in the moth trap. 15 moths of 10 species, including 4 Snout. Undoubted highlight was my second ever Merveille du Jour - the first was in the garden last November - a lovely thing to see anytime, but especially on a grey, damp morning devoid of colour.

Possible Parectopa ononidis at Kenfig

Paul's post reminded me of leaf mines I photographed on Red Clover at Kenfig on the 14th. At the time I thought it might have been Parectopa ononidis, but I wasn't sure and as I never inspected the larva it was forgotten about. Checking again it looks a pretty good match, so any thoughts appreciated...

PS. Paul, apologies if I seem pendantic, but I wonder if your clover might be Zigzag? The leaves look very elongate and parallel - check any wider angle photos you have.

Parectopa ononidis. Nantyffyllon.

                                    Leaf mine. upperside.

                                  Leaf mnine, underside.

                                  Larva, released onto original plant.
                                  Many thanks to Dave Slade for confirming this (I think)
                                  3rd county record, and a nice addition to the Llynfi valley
                                  list. A search of Red clover revealed a further 5 mines in
                                  the area.

Cadoxton Ponds

A belated post - I trapped at Cadoxton Ponds on the 13th of September but only caught 27 species. A few were new to the site, including burnished brass, and large wainscot and cyclamen tortrix were also nice to see. There were a handful of micros I'd like confirmation of please:

Aproaerema anthyllidella?

Cochylis hybridella?

Endothenia marginana

Mompha epilobiella?

Saturday 24th - Llandaff

After a torrential down pour around 11pm for an hour or so the rain eased off.

Not a lot of note but another new species for the garden. A very nice little moth, Ypsolopha sequella, along with Nettle Tap, Vapourer moth, Brimstone, Common Marbled Carpet's, a handful of Silver Y's, Lesser Yellow Underwing etc.. Still a few mircos to ident.

To Kitchen Window

No Vestals up here: far too exotic. Instead, I found this Grey Chi on my kitchen window, this morning. It is the first in my garden since 2011 and the latest one I have ever recorded.

Bridgend last night

Another quiet night, just 9 species caught, the highlight our first 2 Sallow of the autumn. The catch was no doubt reduced by a Noctule Bat dining out over the trap at about 10pm!!

Central Roath

Vestal on 20/09/16 along with 6 Large Ranunculus. Otherwise quiet.

Two of six recorded 20th & 21st.

Gorseinon

Thought I'd better get in on the Vestal action and after so little trapping recently it was nice to see some familiar autumnal friends. Sure enough there was one amongst the 42 moths of 21 species in the garden trap this morning. This was just the 7th garden record in over 20 years trapping here.

Saturday 17th - Llandaff

Warm and humid but sadly a full moon .

Garden produced the usual Large Yellow Underwing's, Brimstone, Silver Y's and a few Dark Arches.

Only two species of interest and both new to the garden were a Mompha raschkiella and Acleris sparsana. My first Mompha sp, from the garden.

Rudry

Not much in the trap this a.m but Vestal was first since 2014

Creigiau - last week

An odd week or so - on Tuesday 06 Sept, we had a min temperature of 16C and 28 species including first visit of the year of Argyresthia goedartella. With reference to an earlier posting from George, I had 14 Dusky Thorn in/around the trap - never seen so many at one time.

Yet, on Saturday 10th the night time minimum plummeted to 7C and only 11 species turned up. On a brighter note, at dusk on 11th I found 6 Silver Y nectaring on the sedum plants.

On Tuesday 13th, the mid-week box saw a minimum temperature of 17C and 23 species, including a first visit of the year of Rosy Rustic and Snout, and a second visit of Cypress Carpet

This afternoon, in bright sunshine, a Silver Y shared the sedum  plants with a Small Tortoiseshell

and this little beastie paid a very brief visit - I was trying to take pictures of hoverflies and suddenly noticed this on one of the leaves. I managed one quick shot before it flew away - first thought was maybe Nettle-tap but I'm not sure. Confirmation/correction appreciated.

Dunraven gardens.

                 Bedellia somnulentella mines on Bindweed yesterday.

Sycamore larva

Belated report for Sep 12th....

My granddaughter found this little beauty on her way home from school. It was crossing a lane adjacent to a small park near Senghenydd Square.

Dunraven bay.

             Nice Vestal at Witches point. Also 2 Rush veneer and 10 Silver Y.

Our garden last night

MV. 38 moths / 13 species. The highlight was a Vestal plus Rush Veneer. Nothing new for the year but also of interesy Light Emerald and Dusky Thorn.

Convolvulous hawkmoth in Cardiff.

                      Found by Matthew Rosser inside his house on Tuesday.
                      Photo from his facebook post.

Merthyr mawr last night.

          Epinotia sordidana.

           Epinotia sordidana. 5th county record and the first in East Glam since 1923.
           A poor night otherwise, just 21 species, the only migrants being 4 Silver Y.

Mumbles

For the record here's one of the images of the Convolvulus Hawk sent by Sandra's work colleague Caroline Dowrick, that she found on her clothes hanging on the washing line.

Llandaff North last night

A pretty good return, by mid September standards, of 22 species in the garden MV last night. The highlight was probably my 3rd garden record of Pinion-streaked Snout, but almost as pleasing was another 3 Dusky Thorns. The State of Britain's Larger Moths (2013) shows this to be one of our most rapidly declining macro-moths with a 98% decrease in abundance in 40 years. Ash Dieback isn't going to help its cause but for now it's doing well, at least locally. It's a bit of an erratic species in my garden, with annual total number of individuals as follows (years with no records not shown):

2007: 5
2009: 3
2013: 5
2016: 14 (to date)

Dusky Thorn

Also recorded was the Horse Chestnut leafminer Cameraria ohridella, despite being a fair way from any horse chestnut trees. After a single in 2010 I've now had this species in the trap several times each year since 2013. It usually turns up on warm nights which encourage dispersal.


A fresh Toadflax Pug was also nice.

Toadflax Pug

Dunraven bay.

17 Rush veneer put up from the grass on a 50 metre stretch of the cliffs leading down to the car park this morning, migrants are in...

Cwm mawr migrants.

                Tebenna micalis

                Tebenna micalis

                Rush veneer.
                These two migrants netted in Cwm mawr valley, south of Dunraven
                this morning.

Elachista subalbidella mine

While looking (unsuccessfully) for Marsh Fritillary webs on Llantrisant Common on Tuesday I chanced across this occupied leaf mine on Purple Moor-grass Molinia caerulea. There is only one species of miner known from this plant, Elachista subalbidella, and the larva matches the description in MBGBI vol. 3, so I think the identification is safe (I'll try and rear the adult but don't fancy my chances). I can't find any online images of this mine so I guess it's not often seen in the larval stage.