Actinic debut in Bridgend

We gave our new little Actinic 8W / Heath combination a try in the garden last night. We'd only used it with a battery in our caravan on the Gower before.

Unsurprisingly a small catch 12 species / 30 individuals, the highlight was our first Copper Underwing of the year. Rusty Dot Pearl and Knot Grass were also nice to get, but most of the catch was Brimstone moth!

We've equalled last year's species total for the garden already at 170 species (128 macro).

Mike & Emma.

Abercregan last night.

                               Cedestis subfasciella?

                              Eulamprotes atrella.
                              A cool, clear night with only 25 species seen. Best of
                              the macros was a Slender brindle.

Nutmeg?

Is this a Nutmeg?

Parc Slip

Trapped at Parc Slip on wednesday night for a public moth morning on thursday. Clear, fairly cool conditions but still a decent catch of 194 individuals of 67 species including plenty of flashy species for the public to appreciate - gold spot, canary-shouldered, august and dusky thorns, peach blossom, chinese character and angle shades amongst others. Some other nice species included dark sword-grass, bulrush wainscot (my second record here), devon carpet and a range of prominents.

Llandaff North in the rain

I trapped on Tuesday night despite the deluge - it was warmer than the other nights this week, which have been clear and moonlit, and on wet nights like this I can stick my trap under the edge of the lean-to which adjoins the house. As there was no wind to blow the rain under the lean-to, the trap was bone dry in the morning.

Considering the conditions I thought 32 species was a reasonable total, with a few notable micro-moths in the catch: Bedellia somnulentella (a boom and bust species which last appeared in numbers in 2011), Coleophora lineolea (new for garden) and the bunny ears moth Ypsolopha sequella.

Ypsolopha sequella

Bedellia somnulentella

Coleophora lineolea

Coleophora lineolea seems to be almost restricted to the south-eastern corner of Glamorgan (map from my copy of the county database in MapMate - click to enlarge).

Autumn arrives in Bridgend

33 species overnight and a taste of autumn, with a heavy dew and a few migrants. Of the 92 individuals, 54 were outside the MV Trap.

The highlights for us were all new for the year: Rusy Dot Pearl, Canary-shouldered Thorn, Dusky Thorn, Least Yellow Underwing, Lychnis (first since 2010), Flounced Rustic and no doubt the first of many Setaceous Hebrew Character to come!

There was also a nice mixture of micro moths: Apple Leaf Miner, Carcina quercana, Light Brown Apple moth, Pseudogyrotozoa conwagana (please someone give it an English name!!!), Acleris forsskaleana, Ringed China-mark (male), Pyrausta aurata.

Think we'll give the 8w Actinic a go for its debut in the garden tonight :)

Mike & Emma

Rudry in the rain

This Evergestis pallidata was new for the garden ,it started honking down with rain when i checked the trap and a Magpie moth flew off before i could capture for an image;  also new to the garden.