Llandaff North GMS 2013

With the Garden Moth Scheme having finished for the year (I'm not hardy enough to do the winter version) I thought I'd have a look at the moth numbers and compare them with other years. This is probably more meaningful than the usual end of year summary I do, as the trapping rate is fixed at once per week (from the start of March to the start of November). The downside is that it only includes 213 species (I've only included those which have been in the scheme from the start).

 Here are the results from my garden:

Year	Total moths	Species	Mean min. temp (degC)
2007	888	83	10.99
2008	768	83	10.64
2009	791	90	10.41
2010	953	95	10.11
2011	1141	96	10.71
2012	886	84	9.59
2013	1260	92	9.78

 
So 2013 has been the best year in terms of numbers, but not in terms of species. Quite impressive considering very few moths were caught before June. The low average temperature is due mainly to the very cold spring.

A few species had by far their best ever year in the GMS, these being Common Marbled Carpet, Swallow-tailed, Bright-line Brown-eye, Flame Shoulder, Dot, Buff Ermine and Agriphila straminella.