Creigiau - 03 June

A warm, muggy night so the box went out into the garden. 50 species including a number of micros which I have had a go at identifying, but not particularly confident. Several of these would be new species for me so would be grateful for confirmation/correction.

Bactra lancealana ?

 Different individuals but are these the same? Crambus ericella or pratella

Cydia pomonella & a Glyphipterix sp

Hedya ochroleucana ... maybe?

I think these could be Rhyacionia pinicolana & pinivorana.

Darren Woods and surrounding area, Maesteg

 Little Thorn - new for valley, seems to be quite scarce in Glamorgan

 Red-necked Footman

Micropterix aureatella

Common Pug, one you don't normally see!

I could not resist sharing this scotica form of Common Pug. We encountered it on the side of our holiday Lodge last week up near Carrbridge on Speyside. We didn't do any moth trapping, it would have meant leaving the kids behind to fit all our kit in!!

Bridgend garden last night

After a week away in Scotland following a few cold bleak trappings, we returned in style on a hot night, with 106 moths of 36 species. The catch was dominated by Heart & Dart and Common Marbled Carpet, but the highlights were Lozotaenia forsterana and Middle-barred Minor, both which we last trapped in 2015.

There were 24 species new for the year including Anania coronata, Green Carpet, Freyer's Pug, Green Pug, Peppered moth, Clouded Silver, Least Black Arches, The Flame, Small Square-spot, clouded-bordered Brindle, Silver Y, Straw Dot and Spectacle.

New from Talbot Green

Things are definitely picking up here, with some interesting micros among them. First was Nematopogon pilella - the first modern record of this species, one of the smaller brown longhorn moths, with metallic forewings and a white face. Almost certainly over looked, but nice nonetheless. This one was found indoors by my wife.
At the moth trap, was the rather lovely Spuleria flavicaput - a species I saw a couple of times back in 1995 but this is the first record this millenium.

And nearly ignore in the moth trap was a really grotty looking Argyresthia, which on closer examination wasn't actually grotty just pretty plain, and appears to be either Argyresthia glabratella or laevigatella.

Highlights from Highlight Park, Barry

It's been a while since we last posted, having moved the family over to Barry. So, another new garden's moths to acquaint ourselves with... Highlights so far: 

Oak Beauty was a new species for us and we had plenty if these early in the year. One even sat on the back wall of the house for several days with thick snow on it, flying off once defrosted!

Then a female Emperor Moth was spotted in the trap late April. It did look a little like it could have been carried by a bird, but there is quite a bit of open woodland and lots of foodplant all around so they are probably in the neighbourhood. Eggs were left in the pot and now I have about 30 hungry mo(u)ths to feed... they seem to be doing ok but if anyone has any rearing tips it'd be much appreciated!

This last week we've had two of The Mocha in the trap which is another new species for us and seems it's quite scarce around here. Again lots of foodplant just up the road.

In addition a number of species new for us: Satellite, Dwarf and Brindled Pug, Pine Beauty, Grass Rivulet, Small Seraphim and Dingy Shell.

Hopefully we'll get a few more new ones as the year goes on. The main challenge in this new garden is the Great Tit family who have set up home and routinely beat me to the trap in the mornings...

Parc Slip

Wednesday night proved the most productive of the year so far at Parc Slip with the temperature not dropping below 16. About 220 moths of 70+ species including 4 new to the site following the 5 new ones last week: orange footman, seraphim, Elachista subalbidella and Glyphipterix fuscoviridella.

There was also over 20 FFY including the second ever Coptotriche marginea, 4th ever Mompha locupletella, cream wave, lesser cream wave and foxglove pug along with plenty of showy species for the visiting Chinese delegation (!) to see - poplar hawk, blood-vein, buff-tip, green carpet, flame carpet, peach blossom etc. Hopefully Paul might have a couple more micros to add to the list after looking at his photos...(thanks for your help yesterday!)
Non-moth interest was provided by a cockchafer, black sexton beetle, Tipula maxima and a birch shieldbug.