Cwmbach, Last Night.

I ran my 22w actinic garden trap overnight and was rewarded with eleven moths of eight species, namely:

Agonopterix arenella x 1
Epiphyas postvittana x 1
Red-green Carpet x 2 (all of these I've had this year have mainly or completely green. Anyone else found the same?)
Spruce Carpet x 2
Feathered Thorn x 1
Scarce Umber x 1
Red-line Quaker x 2
Flounced Chestnut x 1

Another harvestman in Gorseinon

Sandra noted this large species on a wall in the street when we were walking the dog this evening:

Odiellus spinosus

Odiellus spinosus

November Leps

Red Admiral & Small Tortoiseshell at Lavernock Pt. today. Red Ad. in garden yesterday. Feathered Ranunculus (2) & E. monodactyla (2) at the Knap 1st Nov.

Plenty of these caterpillars lurking under stones on the steep slopes around Rhoose Point, I'm guessing one of the Tiger moths, probably Ruby Tiger?  They are about 30mm long.

And as moths are a bit thin on the ground at the moment, here's a pic of a bristletail I found over the weekend.  The narrow ocelli that run the full length below the eyes indicate it is one of the two Petrobius species found in the UK.  It is most likely P. maritimus given that I found it just on the landward side of the sea cliff, but I can't be sure about that.  There don't seem to be many records of these, but I guess there are not many people looking for them.

Last week of Summer GMS - Llandaff North

With a minimum temperature of 3.6 C, heavy showers through the night, and having had two empty traps recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find two moths in the trap this morning. If this hadn't been a GMS night I wouldn't have bothered putting the trap out. The moths were Dark Chestnut and Acleris schalleriana, both in fine fettle.

Dark Chestnut

This is my 9th garden record of Dark Chestnut, and I've still yet to record the Chestnut here.

Dare Valley Country Park, this Afternoon

A gloriously sunny afternoon at Dare Valley and searching the lower Sallows, I came across this larva:

Although it was small (about 10-15mm long) and fairly green and featureless, it has a prominent red anal plate and a dark line down the centre of its head. I have been through Porter several times without success (nothing unusual about that) and I've also been through the excellent, though not exhaustive larva section of Chris Manley's book, again with no luck. Anyone got any ideas?
If it helps, the larva seems to be associated with this leaf roll:

Another highlight, of a non lep kind was a Kidney-spot Ladybird, found on the underside of another Sallow leaf:

This was only my second record of this species.

Abernant, this Afternoon

Out on the hillside above Abernant, in the Cynon Valley, this afternoon, I came across this larva feeding on Sallow, beside the track.
I failed to find it in Porter, so suspecting it to be a Prominent, I searched on UK Moths and identified it as Pebble Prominent: if anyone knows better, I'm sure you'll let me know :¬)
Sorry about the quality of the photos: it was in an awkward position (I was standing in a stream and up to my waist in brambles) and it was in a difficult pose... excuses!