Cadoxton Ponds

Put the trap out last night and despite it being windy (resulting in very few moths outside trap i think) i still managed a good haul of 70-odd species I think. Just the one migrant (Diamond-backed moth) but plenty of reedbed and wetland species as you'd expect. Highlights were definitely silky wainscot and is this a brown-veined wainscot?

Other wetland species: Chilo phragmitella, Calamotropha paludella, small china-mark and is this a southern wainscot?

Other highlights/new for me this year were yellow-tail, latticed heath, canary-shouldered thorn, lime-speck pug, small waved umber, garden tiger, brown-line bright-eye (and a few bright-line brown-eyes...) and lackey. As well as what i believe is straw underwing?

Micros were dominated by Blastobasis adustella and plenty of grass moths. A few i would like confirmation of though I'm afraid:

1. Blastobasis lacticolella?

2. Crambus perlella?

3. Depressaria daucella?

4. Depressaria radiella? (poor photo sorry)

5. Dichrorampha sp.?

6. Eudonia pallida?

7. Well-marked but no idea annoyingly...

Broughton night of 27Jul14

Some nice hot sticky weather, a caravan by the sea. Where better to try out our new Actinic Heath Trap?

Well it did not disappoint (29 species / 33 moths), the first moth staring at us the following morning was a fine Grass Eggar along with a personal favourite of ours- Canary-shouldered Thorn. A few interesting micros included Depressaria daucella (tbc), Cochylis atricapitana, Acleris aspersana, Grey Tortrix Cnephasia sp. Other highlights were The Drinker, Single Dotted Wave, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Poplar Hawkmoth, 2 Yellow-tail, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 White-line Dart, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Triple-spotted clay, Small Wainscot, The Clay, Knot Grass and a lovely Cloaked Minor.

We also recorded 12 species of Butterfly over the weekend: Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Small Blue, Small Heath, Large White, Small White, Grayling, Peacock, Red Admiral and 4 Small Skipper.

Mike & Emma

Kenfig Industrial Estate, near Port Talbot

Spotted this Brown-veined Wainscot at a lighted window of my Factory - RPC Ltd, last night - new for the 1km Square. Eglwys Reservoir reedbed is about 1/2 mile away

Scotland.

                      Mike and Jake at Talisker

                     Transparent burnet

                    Narrow bordered five spot burnet,  ssp jocelynae

                    Dotted carpet

                   Pale eggar

                  Cousin german

                 Grey mountain carpet

                 Heath rivulet

                 Rhopobota ustomaculana

                Mike at Cairngorm.
                Mike Powell, David Gilmore and I spent 3 days in Scotland last week.
                Skye was our first stop for the two rare Burnets at Talisker, both were
                seen well in the sunshine and the weather stayed sunny and hot for the
                whole trip. Mike had forgot to get fuel for the generator so the first nights
                trapping at Kylerhea only lasted 55 minutes with very little coming to the
                traps. The second night we trapped at Corrieshalloch gorge, just south of
                Ullapool and a very busy night followed. Good numbers of moths were
                seen (i'm sure Jake has more details on numbers) including Heath rivulet,
                Beech green carpet, Barred carpet, Dotted carpet, Lempke's gold spot,
                Ruddy highflyer, Welsh wave and Rhopobota ustomaculana.
                      The third night found us 1900ft up Cairngorm near Aveimore and
               hundreds of moths came to the traps including an incredible 200+ True
               lovers knot. Also seen were Scarce silver Y,  Cousin german, Double dart,
               Pale eggar, Pretty pinion and Gold spangle.
                      We also saw Golden eagles, White tailed sea eagles, Ospreys, Twite,
               a male Red backed shrike, Red and Black throated divers, Hooded crow,
               Scottish crossbill, Scotch argus, Large heath, Northern marsh orchids,
               Creeping ladies tresses, Common seal, Otter, Mountain hare and, best
               of all, a cracking Pine Marten close up in the headlights of the car for
               at least a minute.

Tyle Haidd, Merthyr Tydfil. 26th July.

With another fine, dry (0% chance of rain, according to the met Office, Brecon Beacons mountain area forecast) night in store, I decided to take advantage of the mild overnight temperatures and run the trap on the Taff trail, north of Merthyr Tydfil, in the relatively under recorded 10km square SO01. The night started well, with the trap being switched on at 21:45, but at around 23:00, there was a sharp shower (so much for the forecast), lasting around 15 minutes, which had me scurrying around trying to cover the lamp, generator and eventually had me standing holding a golf umbrella over the trap.

I had planned to make it a relatively short session, but inevitably I ended up trapping until 03:15, as the moths just kept coming. By far the most numerous group were the Crambidae, with the mass of Scoparia ambigualis, Eudonia mercurella and Dipleurina lacustrata numbering several hundreds. After each visit to the trap, I came away with so many clinging to my trousers that as I stamped my feet to dislodge them, they filled the air like confetti.

In the end, 96 species were recorded, 15 of which were new to SO01 and of those 7 were macros.

Highlights included Argyresthia bonnetella, Acleris forsskaleana, Catoptria margaritella, Udea olivalis, Acrobasis advenella, Orange Swift, Large Emerald, Chinese Character (I don't get many of these), a stunningly marked Dark Marbled Carpet, Black Arches, Dingy Footman, Scarce Footman, Buff Footman, Dark Swordgrass, Dark Spectacle and Marsh Oblique-barred.
Continuing Adam's thread a little, I also had 7 Cydia splendana, but these are nothing unusual up here and I have often had good numbers of them in the past.

Bridgend garden overnight 25Jul14

MV trapping again was productive last night with 47 species (181 individuals).

The highlight for us was our first Ringed China-mark (363rd species for garden). Others new for the year were Carcina quercana, Yellow-barred Brindle and Lesser Yellow Underwing.

The trap was dominated by Light Brown Apple moth, Dark Arches, Brimstone, Willow Beauty and Marbled Beauty, though some other nice species to note were Oegoconia (agg) sp, Mother Of Pearl, Red Twin-spot Carpet, August Thorn, Dingy Footman, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Smoky Wainscot, Knot-grass, Dun-bar, Silver Y and Snout.

On another note, Emma and Holly noted a Pyrausta cingulata in the undergrowth at Twlc Point, Broughton during the week.

Mike & Emma

Possible Caloptilia semifascia?

Does this look good for C semifascia?  The moth is a more dark brown/chocolate colour than the photo appears.  If I'm right it would be the second modern Glam record for this species. 

We have a lot of Field Maple locally which was planted in possibly excessive quantities (imho!) as part of the original landscaping scheme for Rhoose Point.