Parc Slip

A surprisingly good catch last night with the highlight being our first privet hawkmoth and only the second I've ever seen. Lots of showy moths with plenty of elephant and poplar hawks, 2nd ever garden tiger, barred straw which we don't get often, FFY rosy footman and scalloped oak among 53 species. Also, is this well-marked Scoparid a Scoparia ambigualis?

Creigiau - Tuesday 27 June

An amazing box on Tuesday night - cloudy, drizzling rain but warm (15.8C minimum) and my actinic light attracted over 200 moths of 73 species, with 26 being new for the year ! Highlights included 22 V-Pugs (mostly on the wall behind the box), Large Emerald, Swallow-tailed Moth

and some really nice, well marked micros which I have attempted to ID (grateful for correction/confirmation) - an Argyresthia sp (possibly A. goedartella or maybe A. brockeella), Batrachedra praeangusta, Eucosma compoliliana and Ypsolopha sequella.

Central Roath

A few good moths over the last few days. A Grass Rivulet (new for site). Buff Footman & good numbers of Treble Brown Spot (garden, Roath Park & UHW Heath) plus a Bordered Straw, my first here since June 1996.

Also of note: a Striped Hawk-moth at Cardiff Prison 17.v.2017 (per Jan Scheeres)

From iPhone

Coegnant coal spoil, Nantyffyllon 26 June.

                                  Shark

                                 Odd Clouded bordered brindle?

                                 Crambus pratella

                                Epinotia signatana 4.  Only 3 records of this in TMOG.

                                148 species in total identified, with 4 new for the valley list
                                and 12 new for the KM square. Highlights were 29 Elephant
                                hawkmoth, 26 Buff arches, Light arches, Small mottled willow,
                                Round winged muslin, Poplar grey, Rosy footman, Epiblema
                                costipunctana, Calamotropha palludella, catoptria margaritella
                                and Coleophora trifolii.

Creigiau - Sunday night

A respectable box on a much cooler Sunday night - 38 species with 8 new for the year, comprising Bird-cherry ermine, Celypha striana, Dark Arches, Dot Moth, Fern, Ingrailed Clay, Snout and Rustic/Uncertain,
Stuck on two, a plain orange-ish tortrix and a distinctively marked tortrix - both are eluding me at the moment. Grateful for further assistance.

Hummer

A Hummingbird Hawk was seen briefly at Cefn Onn quarry this afternoon, my first of the year.

Llandaff - Garden - 26th June

A mild and overcast night with some drizzle.

A decent haul of moths with some interesting species, a couple new to garden once again and a migrant.

Highlights being, Leopard Moth, Green Arches, Burnished Brass(2), Coronet(5), Small Mottled Willow and a lovely Ptycholomoides aeriferana.

The Leopard Moth is the second garden record, Green Arches was the 5th I've had this year, so far. I've not had Burnished Brass for many years, so to see two together was very nice.
The migrant Small Mottled Willow, I'm sure is a new garden record, but the cracking Tortrix, Ptycholomoides aeriferana, was so nice to see.

Still a few id's to confirm in the micro department.

Will upload some photos tomorrow, was late home this evening, so moths are chilling another night.

Finally managed some time to upload a few others from the night.

Burnished Brass

Ptycholomoides aeriferana

Leopard Moth

Llandaff North last night

I'm always complaining that my garden is a bit rubbish for moths, but I may have to stop this negative talk after recent bumper catches. Last night continued the recent run of excellent results, with 87 species in the Robinson MV.

I've waited 10 years for a Small Ranunculus here, and then two turn up on the same night!

Other highlights were Sycamore (photo), Haworth's Pug (2) and Anania stachydalis (alongside 20+ of its commoner relative Anania coronata).

Much less welcome was an early Square-spot Rustic - usually a sign that summer is ending and the best of the mothing is behind us. Let's hope that's not the case this year!

More from Port Eynon

When I'm here, I try to trap every night because the selection of moths is so much better than in my home garden! Although noticeably far fewer micros.

Last night, NFY were Peppered Moth, Lime Speck Pug, Eyed Hawk-moth (below), Privet Hawk-moth, Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Grey Arches, Grey Dagger agg., Light Arches, Scarce Footman, Pebble Prominent, Lackey, Scalloped Oak and Lychnis.

Dave Morris

Llandaff - Garden - 24th June

A drizzly and breezy evening here in Llandaff.

It was a smallish catch with two new to garden once again. The highlights being Green Arches, an Early Thorn, another Sycamore, Prays fraxinella, Scythropia crataegella, Dingy Shears and Epinotia tedella. The latter two being new to the garden.

Port Eynon Garden

On a week's visit to Port Eynon, from my usual haunts in Buckinghamshire. Put the trap out - or rather, in, the greenhouse last night due to the forecast rain.

A few NFY species as far as I am concerned, with L-Album Wainscot (below, top), Broom Moth, Green Arches (below, bottom), Small Angle Shades, Broad-barred White, Elephant Hawk-moth, Cypress Carpet, Turnip Moth and Rush Veneer.

Dave Morris, Port Eynon

Pengam Moors

On the last night of the heatwave (21st June) I took two portable traps down to the saltmarsh at Pengam Moors for a couple of hours. Although moth numbers were rather small, two saltmarsh specialists were caught - Bucculatrix maritima (several of these) and a Scrobipalpa species (tbc).

Plain form of Bucculatrix maritima

Scrobipalpa species tbc

It was also nice to see Obscure Wainscot and Cochylis molliculana (there was plenty of the foodplant, bristly oxtongue, near the trap site).

Cochylis molliculana

Llantwit Major Moths

New to this blog so I will attempt a quick introductory post:- My family and I moved to Llantwit Major last year from Alnwick in Northumberland where we had been moth trapping for 2-3 years (we started off through the loan of a trap for the GMS by Mike Cook, sponsored by ERIC). We are still relative beginners and excited to find out what species frequent our new garden. 

Hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly in future but our highlights so far this year have been a small number of Sycamore, Cypress Carpet, Lackey, Wood Carpet, Red-necked Footman, V-Pug and Brussels Lace which have all been new for us. We also had a Scarlet Tiger in trap on Tuesday night (sadly it didn't stick around till the following day), along with the odd Elephant & Small Elephant Hawk-moth.

Looking forward to the rest of the year's trapping!

Our Bridgend garden last night

Cool and windy conditions reduced the catch last night with 63 moths of 21 species. The highlight for us was a cracking Green Arches (first here since 2015). Accompanying two smashing Elephant Hawkmoths and also new for the year were Eyed Hawkmoth, Buff-tip, Common Wainscot, Dark Arches, Dot moth and Cabbage. Our garden year list has reached 96, disappointingly low as we only managed the time to trap once in the hot weather.

Llandaff - Garden - 21st June

A much cooler evening thankfully last night and really blustery here in Llandaff.

A smaller catch with a just a few highlights, Pyrausta purpuralis, Light Arches, Lychnis, Plain Golden Y, Alder Moth, Miller and a very nice Sycamore.

I'm hoping for some migrants.

Heatwave moths

I trapped every night in my Llandaff North garden during the heatwave, and like others I also enjoyed good results. In fact it was better than good - the 96 species in my MV trap on 19th June was the best I've had, in terms of species, in 10 years living here - and by some margin (previous highest total in the low 80s). No doubt mostly due to the weather but a few other factors may have contributed: 1) I've taken to putting the trap down on the lawn rather than up against the house, 2) I've replaced the rainshield with an upturned pyrex bowl, which seems to allow the moths to enter the trap more easily, 3) our local streetlights have been replaced recrently, the new ones being whiter but much less bright and with less light spill.

During this spell I've had 6 micros new for the garden: Crambus pratella, Bucculatrix ulmella, Dioryctria abietella, Phtheochroa inopiana, Coleophora frolichiella and C. deauratella.

Crambus pratella

Dioryctria abietella

Coleophora deauratella

Other species rarely recorded here have included Red-necked Footman (I'd had one in 2013 which I'd forgotten about when commenting on Stephen's post), Slender Pug, Small Seraphim, Scarce Silver-lines and Exoteleia dodecella.

Creigiau - 18 June

First 100+ box of the year with 54 species - 17 were making their first garden appearance of the year and one of these, Red-necked Footman, was a new moth for me. Highlights were Red-necked Footman (4), Beautiful Golden Y, Brown China-mark and Crambus pascuella (5).

Also had a couple of confusion species in Double Square-spot and Triple-spotted Clay.

And .. as always, some micros. The first is very similar to one posted by Vaughn recently, which I also think may be a Hedya sp.

and we have two others that I would be grateful for ID assistance