Small dusty wave

 Was by an open window in my place of works.. .. St. Helens road , Swansea 

Port Eynon

 Managed to get my annual trip from Buckinghamshire to Port Eynon in at last, and naturally enough trapped in my mum's garden.

I had a few new for my year list, although not as many of the coastal species I usually manage to catch, albeit 5-6 weeks earlier in the year.

Of interest, though, I did catch Mecyna asinalis, Dolicharthria punctalis, and three examples of what I take to be Cosmopterix pulchrimella, which I see from the Glamorgan Moths website has occurred in Port Eynon on a handful of previous occasions. 

Dave Morris

Micro queries

Some micro queries from my Gorseinon garden last night .

 No 1 

 No 2

 No 3

 No 4

 No 5.   Images 1 and 3 look to be Mompha epilobiella. , no 2 Eudonia delunella , no 4 E truncicolella and  no 5 Gypsonoma oppressana . Thanks for any input

Gorseinon

Some highlights from 24tb /25th ...
Stathmopoda pedella , Scarce silver lines , July belle , four-dotted footman , 2 beautiful hook-tip, privet hawk, grass emerald , Brussels lace and generally good numbers for my garden of fair sp range

Gorseinon

Some highlights from a couple of traps on tues and Wednesday were 2 Seraphim ( thanks Barry for confirmation) and shears

Llandaff - Garden - 16th May

Another slow start to the year here on my side of Llandaff. I've only passed single figures on three occasions since starting this years Garden Moth Scheme.

Highlight once again thus far was a Toadflax Brocade, sadly the Great Tit's beat me to it. I saw one wing on top of trap and rest inside. I've still not found any larvae in the garden amongst the Purple Toadflax, nor on the copious amounts of it in the lane, especially as the larvae is quite conspicuous.

Toadflax Brocade

Abercregan. 14th may.

             One Anania funebris on the steep bank going down to the river at SS857961.

              The Heather and bracken slope where the moth was seen.

Gorseinon Thursday night 9th

Blossom underwing last night the highlight . Good numbers of moths/species
21 brindled beauty ,  9 c. Quaker, 7 s. Quaker , 5 Hebrew ch.  singles of streamer, ang shades , Sal kitten  , pop grey, early tooth striped, twin spot Quaker . 2 each of clouded drab and oak beauty

Garnwen, Nantyffyllon 9/4/20.

            2 Epinotia pygmaeana flying in sunshine around spruce trees, a lifer for me and only 5 previous county records. The photo below shows the feathered antennae. Both were males.

Moth Dissection Course

I am running a dissection course at the SEWBReC office at the end of the February, and we have two spaces left. If you are interested, please contact me (david . slade @ sewbrec . org . uk) Thanks, Dave

Merthyr mawr

     Pammene giganteana. First county record

     Pammene argyrana. Last recorded in Glamorgan in 1923.
     I caught these two tortrix at Merthyr mawr dunes on 24/5/2017 and gave them to George Tordoff for dissection. They were thought lost until refound this week! Thanks George and to Dave for confirmation.

Barry, 10th November

A good mix in the trap from Sunday night including Merveille du Jour, December Moth, Red-green Carpet, Yellow-line Quaker and two Silver Y. The surprise was the Sprawler - doubly so as I hadn't checked to see how scarce it was here (GMS folks always seem to get them here and there). Poss. 6th record for Glamorgan and 2nd since 1917 (Thanks to George)! I shall have to try to get a better pic...

Mellte

Just out of county, occupied leaf mines of Stigmella tiliae were present on at least three Small-leaved Limes at the gunpowder works site in the Mellte valley near Pontneddfechan. My data set shows this species has not been recorded in Glamorgan, so it may be work checking potential county sites...

Barry 23rd-24th August

The last two nights have seen large numbers of Jersey Tiger in the trap here; ten on Friday night and thirteen individuals counted from last night. Plus one seen fluttering in the garden by day yesterday. Last year I think we had no more than ten recorded and usually in ones and twos.

In contrast we've only had one Garden Tiger this year down from a handful last year. Similar foodplants but different tolerances perhaps...?

Some of Friday night's Tigers left, Saturday's right.

Llandaff - Garden - 23rd August

A warm but mostly clear sky last night.

Sadly, the only moth of note an Orange Sallow, it also happened to be a first for the garden. The remainder of the trap was brimming with Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Broad-borderd Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing and a single Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing - always the smartest looking of them all.

Phaulernis fulviguttella

This scarce (for Glamorgan) Angelica feeding specialist was found at a second site in the Llynfi Valley, this time at Blaencaerau colliery spoil, Caerau, Maesteg [SS8694]. ***update****- another 11 at Gilfach (west), Maesteg [SS8487] on 18 Aug 2019.

Llandaff North trapping this week

I've not done a huge amount of garden trapping this summer, but I made a bit more effort this week and trapped on 4 consecutive nights from 5th to 8th August. Wednesday night (7th August) was the most productive with 46 species - not a huge total, but it was notable for the number of interesting noctuids in the catch. Best of the bunch was Southern Wainscot; there are only two previous records of this species from Cardiff, both from the Bay. Mine might have wandered from there, or it may be breeding more locally on Reed Canary-grass on the Taff riverbank or on Common Reed at Forest Farm.

Also of note were Campion (2nd garden record), Bordered Sallow (3rd record), Least Yellow Underwing (1st since 2008) and Dark Sword-grass. The latter might be a relatively common migrant but it's very good at avoiding my garden - this was my first since 2011. Also a Gold Spot and a couple of Euzophera pinguis, which has had a good year here.

On 5th August there was a wandering Catoptria margaritella (3rd garden record of this boggy moorland species) and the pine-feeding Ocnerostoma friesei (approx. 8th county record), and on the exceptionally warm and wet night of 8th August another Least Yellow Underwing.

All in all, a pretty good week.

Barry, 24th July

A couple more NFG and totally new for us, Box-tree moth from the fence by the trap plus Dusky Sallow & Endotricha flammealis both also NFG. Jersey Tigers continue to appear about one or two a night.

Gorseinon

A Royal Mantle was caught by Chris Brewer just round the corner from me last night.  Plenty in my trap but nothing this good! Looks like he had a couple of Suspected too.  One in my garden also. 

Llandaff - Garden - 23rd July

A very hot and humid evening with thunderstorms. I was unable to run the trap for much longer than midnight due to huge hailstones.

A few micros to check but I did have this wonderful looking beast of a froghopper - Ledra aurita. A local species with only a few records as far as I can see. He has to be around 1.5cm - 2 cm.