Rosemary Beetle

Found a single specimen of this stunning beetle while pruning our Lavender today, the first time I've seen it in our Llandaff North garden.

Chrysolina americana

As the scientific name suggests it's a non native, first recorded in the UK in Surrey in 1994. It has since spread to South Wales - worth looking out for on Rosemary and Lavender. You can submit records on the RHS website at:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Science/Plant-pests/Rosemary-beetle

There's a distribution map on the website too.

Acrolepia autumnitella

Larva feeding in mine 10Sep12

Pupated in net cocoon 14Sep12 

Adult emerged 29Sep12

Following Barry's post at the beginning of the month I went and found one, which hatched out this morning.

Not a bad night catch last night considering the temperature.  14 species in total, the highlight being this September Thorn (at least I think it is a Sept Thorn!) following Barry's record a week or so ago.  It's new for the garden, and for ST06.















Other highlights include Feathered Ranunculus, Diamond-back moth, Pink-barred Sallow, L-album Wainscot and more C molliculana.

July moths - Llandaff North

Given the weather's been largely unsuitable for trapping of late, I've taken the opportunity to catch up with a few dissections from the summer. Most have turned out to be fairly humdrum species, but the two I dissected last night, from 25th July, were species new for the Cardiff area: Monochroa cytisella and Coleophora tamesis.

M cytisella is a bracken feeder so not entirely unexpected, given there's bracken on the Taff riverbank 500 yards from the garden, and I get the odd Brown Silver-line. But C tamesis feeds on Jointed Rush, which I've never seen in Cardiff though it may occur at Forest Farm or somewhere similar, or maybe it was a wanderer from further afield.

In addition to the above, a third specimen from the same night turned out to be Ocnerostoma friesei, new for ST17.

A Lean Night, at Cwmbach

I ran my garden actinic, last night, for the Garden Moth Scheme and although the minimum temperature was 6.30 C, I had only six moths of five species, which is pretty poor for this time of year, I have to say. As they were so few in number, they were all highlights and were:

Common Marbled Carpet x 1
Large Yellow Underwing x 1
Lunar Underwing x 2
Pink-barred Sallow x 1
Rosy Rustic x 1

I haven't entered them onto the GMS yet, so I don't know how many of them are GMS species.

Gorseinon & WWT

A few new spp for the autumn last night, some interesting comparisons between our urban Gorseinon garden trap and a more countryfied one we set at WWT Llanelli :

	Gors	WWT
Light Brown Apple Moth	2	1
Garden Rose Tortrix	1	-
Bactra lancealana/lacteana	-	1
Brimstone Moth	-	4
Light Emerald	-	2
Large Yellow Underwing	3	2
Lesser Yellow Underwing	4	2
Setaceous Hebrew Character	2	-
Square-spot Rustic	5	1
Black Rustic	1	-
Blair's Shoulder-knot	1	-
Green-brindled Crescent	-	1
Large Ranunculus	2	-
Pink-barred Sallow	-	7
Sallow	-	12
Angle Shades	1	6
Rosy Rustic	-	1
Frosted Orange	-	1
Gold Spot	-	1
Silver Y	-	2
Snout	-	1
Species	10	16
Count	22	45

Query for Adam

Adam
My gear has now arrived and I need to ask you a couple of electrical questions. Can you email or text me your phone number and when it would be best to call (this evening if possible)?
My details are 07730 502738 or moonmoths@virginmedia.com.
Thanks
Barry