Ran the trap in the nearby woods for 4 hours last night. Rewarded with 149 moths of 13 species, and it was still 8.5 degrees at 11pm
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| Yellow Horned, showing orange antenna |
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| Pale Brindled Beauty fm monacharia |
I was especially pleased to see this Yellow Horned, my first sighting in Wales in six years, and also the dark form of Pale Brindled Beauty was new for me.
I can't compete with Chris and Mark, but I did have two species in my garden trap last night - the first moths I've trapped for two months. They were Dark Chestnut and Agonopterix heracliana, both new for the year.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in Swansea yesterday, a Comma and a Small Tortoiseshell were enjoying the sunshine (while it lasted).
George
Well done Chris, having just seen the forecast, it looks like you chose the best night of the week!
ReplyDeletefor the first few years of trapping here, back in the late nineties, the monacharia form of Pale Brindled Beauty was the only form I ever got. Later, when I got my first normal PBB, I had to look it up, as I'd never seen one before. Now I hardly ever get the monacharia form and exactly the same story can be told about the capucina form of Green Brindled Crescent. Conversely, I now seem to get far more melanistic forms of the various pugs than I used to.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. There were several monacharia. Maybe it is the late cold spell that changes them. I've never seen the capucina either.
DeleteSorry I didn't word that very well. For the first couple of decades, it was only the capucina form I was seeing, now I only see it occasionally. It's probably the Peppered Moth effect, as until the mid nineties there was a very polluting smokeless briquette manufacturing plant in the valley, that filled the place with all the smoke and impurities, cooked out of the coal dust, to make the smokeless fuel smokeless. It used to also discharge huge plumes of steam, full of coal dust, which then fell back to earth, coating leaves and every other surface, so I suppose it isn't surprising that the melanistic forms of just about everything abounded then. What is slightly surprising, is how quickly the natural balance returned after the accursed Phurnacite plant closed.
DeleteThat, of course, doesn't explain why I seem to be getting more melanistic pugs.
When I first started trapping, in 1990 in Yorkshire, nearly all the Peppered Moths were melanic. By the time I left there in the late 90s I was seeing plenty of the typical form. I don't think I've ever seen a melanic Peppered Moth in Glamorgan - has anyone trapped one in recent years?
ReplyDeleteGeorge
I've sen a few of the intermediate melanic form f. insularia, but I don't think I've had any f carbonaria. I've never seen any melanic pugs though!
ReplyDeleteI should have checked the database before asking that question - I see there were two records of carbonaria in 2009.
ReplyDelete