Nantyffyllon last night.

                                       Poplar hawkmoth

                                      Scarce burnished brass

                                    Chamomile shark larva on Chamomile.
                                    The two species above are new for the Llynfi valley.
                                    47 species in all, with only 3 micro sp.

Werfa, Cwmbach

Last night, I ran my Skinner trap at a disused colliery site, at Werfa, Cwmbach. I trapped from 21:40 until 03:35 and under overcast skies, with a minimum temperature of 11.00C, recorded sixty species. While that was good going for this or any other recent July catches, just ten years ago I would have looked upon it as a very poor catch for the time of year and weather conditions.
Anyway, that was probably as good as it is going to get this year and the catch included not many Noctuids and didn't include any of the yellow underwings or darts.
Highlights included:
Caloptilia stigmatella, Epinotia brunnichana, Evergestis pallidata, Catoptria margaritella, Scoparia pyralella, Satin Lutestring, Large Emerald, Welsh Wave, Satin Beauty, Swallow-tailed Moth, Buff Footman, Beautiful Golden Y and Gold Spot.
The catch included a Tortricid that I think may be a Eucosma, but I'm unable to go much further with it, so apologies for the poor photo, as it shot of as the flash fired, when taking the first and only shot of it and I never saw it again, but suggestions of a possible I.D would be welcome. I wondered whether it might be E. conterminana, but is seems to be a bit out of its area for it to be that, though there was a small patch of Blue Lettuce (Lactuca perennis) about 100m away.

Epinotia brunnichana

George; I think this must be the culprit for those Birch leaf rolls, I found on this site, back in May.

Large Emerald

Gold Spot

Eucosma?

Welsh Wave

Kenfig pool this morning.

                                    Pammene aurana.

Cwmbach

In a nettle patch, near a client's garden, this afternoon, I came across this Comma larva that seems to be getting ready to pupate. It has already attached itself to the nettle with a silk pad. I will try and find it again, once it has formed a chrysalis.
This was the second Comma larva I'd seen in nettles today.

Comma Larva

Gowerton 16 July

New for my garden last night were Beautiful Carpet and Grey Arches.
Also unidentified micro, c 7mm long, any suggestions welcome!


Beautiful Carpet




Grey Arches




Query for ID c. 7mm long



Also a recent pic from Hungary in temperatures close to 40 degrees, just to cheer us all up! Maybe next week when the pesky jet stream has moved on.... Also seen were Burren Green, Hornet Moth, Light and Dark Crimson Underwings were common!

Rhoose

This Ringlet was the second of only two butterflies I saw all weekend, the other being a Small Skipper.  Unusually for me the photo came out rather well!

Llandaff North last night

My first garden trapping since June produced a respectable (by 2012 standards) 32 species, highlights being Oak Nycteoline new for the site, and the second garden record of Buff Footman. Also of note were 3 Common Emerald - I've only ever had singletons previously.

Oak Nycteoline

Buff Footman