Llangynwyd MV last night.

              Oblique carpet

            Hypatima rhomboidella.
            39 species in all inc - Dark sword grass, Rosy rustic, Ypsolopha
            parenthesella, Epinotia immundana and Caloptilia syringella.

Flat Holm offer

Richard Facey has been in touch to say that there are two spare seats available on a weekend trip to Flat Holm coming up soon (weekend of the 13th-15th September). If any moth'ers are interested in taking up this offer please let me (or Richard) know ASAP.

Coed y bedw - Friday night

I had a session at Coed y Bedw WTSWW reserve on Friday night, catching the last of the damp, mild weather before fresher conditions arrived later in the night. It was still 16.8 C when I packed up at 11:30pm. A total of 42 species recorded - slightly disapponting but then this often seems to be the case with woodlands in late summer. The highlight was undoubtedly Elachista bisulcella, which appears to be the 2nd Glamorgan record of this species (Dave - let me know if you need to see the specimen for confirmation). The larvae mine the leaves of Tufted Hair-grass, which was abundant around the trap site.

Elachista bisulcella

 

 

Feathered Gothic was probably the best of the macros, being a declining species and now quite scarce in the south-east of Glamorgan. This was the first Cardiff record since 1997, when Jake and Mike trapped one on the same date at the same site!

Feathered Gothic

Also pleasing were good numbers of Black Arches (10), Buff Footman (5) and a couple of fresh Peach Blossom.

Larvae

A few Star-wort larvae were found feeding on Goldenrod at Crymlyn Burrows yesterday, I only have 4 post 2000 records on my MapMate, and the only other larval records I have are those we saw at Mynydd Garn-goch in 1999.  However, I have a recollection that Paul (Parsons) found larva(e) in recent years - I'd be grateful if you can clarify this Paul?

Also, occupied mines of Chrysoesthia sexguttella were found in Spear-leaved Orache growing below the Neath River viaduct on the 30th. This is a new species for the county according to the NBN (not checked MBGBI), but seems likely to be found elsewhere, so well worth looking out for the distinctive mines. The larval thoracic plate and dorsal characters match perfectly the images shown on UKmoths (only ventral view shown below), so I'm pretty confident the id is good, but any comments welcome.

Last week

Various sightings from the last week:
Sunday in my daughter's garden a well grown Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillar.
Monday by torch by Loughor Estuary on tansy were lots of Plutella xylostella, 4 Emmelina monodactyla, 1 (Saltern) Ear.
Tuesday at Caswell Bay lots of Mullein Wave including 10 on one rock beside the trap, 2 Treble-bar, several Annulet, Dichrorampha acuminatana and an (ordinary) Ear, see comparative photo.
Thursday at Cymmer Tip. Weather forecast was perfect but actually it rained until 2am so lots of midges and some rather damp moths, including 8 Annulet (all males), 10 Autumnal Rustic, 1 wet Heath Rustic, Hedge Rustic, Straw Underwing etc


Dichrorampha acuminatana

Mullein wave

Treble-bar, male

Annulet

Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillar

Autumnal Rustic

Heath Rustic, rained on!

Ear & Saltern Ear possibles

 

Anomalous male

What happened to...

Those of you who were paying attention yesterday, may have noticed a post announcing a new species to the county which has subsequently disappeared. No you didn't imagine it, I pulled it after it was pointed out that John's moth was not actually Pempelia formosa, but actually the rather commoner Phycita roborella. Yes, even I make mistakes! Thanks to George for spotting the mistake suffiently quickly for me to limit the embarrasment.

Dunraven this morning.

Lots of adult Cameraria ohridella flying around a Horse chestnut just past the gardens.