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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Mossman Moths (FNQ, Aus) 2016 (1 Viewer)

And my final post for September being three so called "micro" moths although the size of the first Botyodes asialis (Crambidae, Spilomelinae) belies that name as its wing span is at least 4cm!
The second Cryptophasa pultenae (Xyloryctidae; Xyloryctinae) was new to me and quite a surprise to catch it this far north, earlier in the week I had been having a conversation with the Xyloryctidae expert here and discussing pure white species in particular. Ian assured me that this was the one species that I would not catch....
The final species Nausinoe euroalis (Crambidae, Spilomelinae) which apparently also occurs in India, but I have to say the photos on iNaturalist from India do not look like the single specimen that is on BOLD.
 

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October has continued Septembers run of good nights with 18 species of Sphingidae in the first three nights including a new one for the garden in the form of Hyles livornicoides...taking the new garden list to 24 species and 2016s tally to 36.
But the absolute stand out species was caught last night in the form of two Milionia queenslandica (Geometridae, Ennominae), not a species I see regularly so to catch two is exceptional.
Also of note a nice fresh Agrioglypta eurytusalis (Crambidae, Spilomelinae).
Still working through a lot of photos but last night caught at least 80 species and with rain forecast for the week could get even better by the weekend.
 

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Apologies for the lack of posts but have been rather busy and have family and friends over from mid October until end February 2017 so future updates may be patchy but I have several ready for the next few days...
One group that was notable by their absence in Yorkeys were the large Cossidae species in particular the Endoxyla
the last few weeks several of this impressive family have turned up:
Endoxyla grisea - a medium sized species
Endoxyla mackeri - another medium sized species and probably the most common member of the genus in my garden
Endoxyla spp - a small individual, about half the size of mackeri
Endoxyla spp - the second largest moth I have ever caught (only beaten for size by the Saturnid Coscinocera hercules); I could hear this thing clattering around quite some time before I could see it
Trismelasmos donovani - another medium sized species
 

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Unsurprisingly Sphingidae continue to feature strongly with the garden list currently standing at 28 species since 28th May this year - and we have not got to the busy / peak time yet....
Here are a few of the best:
Hippotion celerio - in Yorkeys this was a scarce visitor with just two records from February, here it is a regular visitor in small numbers, peak of four individuals
Theretra nessus - recorded twice in the new garden so far
Hippotion scrofa - this was a very scarce visitor to my Yorkeys garden and so far I have only caught this single individual here
Theretra indistincta - this was a regular visitor in the Wet in Yorkeys but only ever as singles, here up to four turn up most nights at the moment
Theretra celata - only caught this species once in Yorkeys, here whilst not as frequent a visitor as indistincta I am catching it regularly with a peak of three on one night
 

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Crambidae, Spilomelinae also continue to feature strongly - although with this prolonged period of hot and exceedingly dry weather there are fewer around at the moment. Here are a few of the best:
Agathodes ostentalis - always a beautiful moth to see, an irregular visitor to the garden
Glyphodes actorionalis - one of the 12 species that I have caught in the new garden
Meroctena staintonii - a large species with a wingspan of at least 3cm
Omiodes nigriscripta(top) and Omiodes lasiocnemis - both scarce and infrequent visitors to the garden
Pygospila tyres (top) and Pygospila bivittalis - tyres is a regular visitor to the garden in small numbers but so far I have only caught the one bicittalis
 

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A very strong candidate for moth of the year, and a species I have been wanting to see ever since I started mothing here is the stunning Hypsidia erythropsalis (Drepanidae; Drepaninae). Have only caught this single example...
 

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With virtual drought conditions here the mothing is very slow at the moment - the creek we have to cross near the house is hardly flowing and our garden pond has dropped by more than 18 inches in the last fortnight.
Here are a few more from the end of October that I had not posted
Alloeopage cinerea, Anisozyga speciosa and Protuliocnemis partita regular visitors to the light
Hulodes caranea (Erebidae; Catocalinae) - I have caught several of the form with the pale terminal band along the wings but this was the first dark form I have seen
Synthereta escarlata (Saturnidae) - There was a short emergence in mid October when I caught seven individuals in the space of a week, there were examples of both well marked yellow forms and the red form
 

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aeshna5 said:
I'm always amazed by the beauty of your moths. Is there a good field guide that adequately cover them in Australia?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not. I have a couple of coffee table type books and there are a handful of Australian moth web pages covering I suppose 3500 out of the 25000+ potentials, other than that global sites such as BOLD and trawling through Flicker and sites like iNaturalist as well as Facebook groups and a friendly curator at the Aus National Insect Collection. I have probably 40000 unidentified photos at the moment...
Trying to create an on-line resource for Far North Queensland (probably 15000+ species for here alone) but slow going. For more of my moth photos, and a few non moths, check out the albums here...https://www.flickr.com/photos/141382751@N04/albums
 
Last edited:
My apologies for no recent updates, have been without an internet connection due to technical problems. All sorted now so will start a new thread for 2017
 
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