June and July moths in Aus (1 Viewer)

As an ex UK mother I have been really enjoying the monthly threads and so I thought I would start a complimentary thread about mothing DownUnder. I predominantly trap in my back garden (although I am hoping this year to take my generator out and visit a few places on the nearby Tablelands). I have recently moved back to Yorkeys Knob a coastal community approx 15km north of Cairns. I trap using a 125W Mv bulb against a white wall as the potential for unwanted and unpleasant by catch to be lurking in egg boxes when I turn them over is great, this does mean that moths escape and that I tend to turn the light off between midnight and 1am so I do miss some late flyers.
The Australian moth fauna is very diverse with between 25-30,000 species and unsurprisingly no comprehensive guide which makes ID a major challenge; primarily for storage reasons I do not retain specimens in anything other than photographic form and this too has an impact on my ability to ID what I see. There are several good on-line resources, some specifically for Australian moths (such as http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/imagos.html), some for other countries in the region (such as http://www.papua-insects.nl/insect orders/Lepidoptera/Lepidoptera families.htm) and others for specific groups (such as http://choreutidae.myspecies.info/).
I have been actively trapping since Feb this year and have managed so far to ID to either species or family level approx 630 species with several hundred photos still to be worked on.
The first two photos show my trap site and garden - the light is set up against the white wall on the first picture; the area has large gardens with a mix of native and non-native trees and my garden backs onto some melaluca woodland and swamp. The collage shows 9 of the 25 species of hawkmoth I have caught in my garden so far this year

The last six weeks have been very productive for Geometrinae (Emeralds) with 14 species, there are "plain" green species but the majority are beautifully marked, here are four of the more colourful species from the last six weeks:
Anisozyga erymnodes
Comostola nereidiara
Uliocnemis biplagiata
Uliocnemis partita

Not all the Emeralds are green though, here are three of the less obvious Emeralds from the last six weeks:
Pingasa blanda
Pingasa chlora
Dysphania numana

Last night started off cloudy and relatively calm so I decided to put the trap on and see what happened, as is often the way an hour after turning the light on the wind picked up and it started to rain, heavily at times. I decided to leave it on for a couple of hours any way to see what would arrive and this turned out to be a good move as there was a fair amount of activity.
As is always the way there were several obvious / known species and many more that I will work on over the next few days. A few pictures of some of the highlights
Agrius convolvuli (first hawkmoth for a couple of weeks - checked its abdomen and unfortunately it did have pink markings which rules out the similar Agrius godarti which I have yet to find)
Creatonotos gangis (Arctiinae) a very attractive and regular visitor to my trap
Cloera displicata (Ennominae) one of a group of highly variable species - am still checking this one
Syntypistis chloropasta (Notodontinae) - new for the garden
Adrapsa ablualis (Herminiinae) - a common visitor to the light

In addition to the species that I easily identifiable there were many that will take far more research and will add to my ever increasing stack of unknowns.
Two of the more distinctive micro's from last night that will probably be identifiable to species level were this Crambidae and Tortricidae

Some beautiful moths there Dom.

Do you have any problems with Geckos taking the moths? Whenever I'm somewhere more tropical I can't resist leaving the balcony light on to try to attract some moths. Rarely find any moths in the morning but normally find some well fed Geckos.

25 Hawk-moths in 6 months is 5 times as many as I've had in 6 years.

Keep the photos coming.

Great moth photos, Dom, thanks for posting and good luck with all your ids.

Please post your gecko photos too !

Best wishes,

smokenack said:

Do you have any problems with Geckos taking the moths? Whenever I'm somewhere more tropical I can't resist leaving the balcony light on to try to attract some moths. Rarely find any moths in the morning but normally find some well fed Geckos.

25 Hawk-moths in 6 months is 5 times as many as I've had in 6 years.

Keep the photos coming.

Click to expand...

Gecko's are not a real issue here, the non Native Asian House Gecko is by far the most common lizard around the house, closely followed by one of the native Rainbow Skinks (Carilla longipes). The main issue is with the Cane Toad which is having a catastrophic impact on native Australian wildlife across the continent. The "cutest" predator from around the trap though is Mr Stripy (well it could be Mrs Stripy to be honest...) who I see around the garden every couple of nights.
Yep 25 Sphingids in 6 months has blown my mind as well - and occasionally in huge numbers, 40+ Hyles livornicoides on the sheet was an amazing spectacle.
Tonight is clear and calm so not put the trap on so will post some moths from earlier this month tomorrow and try and ID some of my many unknowns.
Striped Possum checking the trap out

Dom, you mention that you do not use egg cartons - what sort of potentially harmful things are you likely to get?
Cheers
Duncan

DMW said:

Dom, you mention that you do not use egg cartons - what sort of potentially harmful things are you likely to get?
Cheers
Duncan

Click to expand...

Hi Duncan
My main concern is spiders - there are several species locally that have venemous bites; in addition there are a few snakes that could be attracted to any frogs or small mammals and hat are in the area and would hide in a trap. Mothing here is interesting!

The Aganaidae (Tropical Tiger Moths) and Arctiidae (Tiger Moths) are two groups that I see frequently. In June / July I have had several members of these families including:
Agape chloropyga (Aganaidae)
Asota heliconia (Aganaidae)
Amerila timolis (Arctiidae)
Argina astrea (Arctiidae)
Utetheisi aegrotum (Arctiidae)

Mothing here is definitely a case of not knowing what might appear in the trap. There are relatively few active mothers in Australia which considering its size means there are lots still to be discovered. An example of which is this Chloephorinae which I have caught three times since mid June. I suspect that this is a species called Aiteta pratti (http://www.papua-insects.nl/insect ...hloephorinae/Careini/Aiteta/Aiteta pratti.htm) but this is apparently endemic to New Guinea and currently not on the Australian list. I suspect that if this is A.pratti it is not that I have found an isolated out post rather it is present in the area between Cairns and New Guinea but has not been recorded due to the scarcity of people looking! I may have to retain a specimen at some stage to pass it over to someone who can confirm by dissection but at this stage I have not worried.
Either way it is a rather nice moth!
The male is on the wall and the female on the plug.

Hi Dom
On the BOLD SYSTEMS website (http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/TaxBrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=492986) there are two specimens of this species illustrated under the previous combination, Sphingiforma pratti. One is from New Guinea but the other is from Australia - and pretty much from Cairns if I've interpreted the map correctly - based on a specimen from the USNM collection. So it is known from Australia, but perhaps not published. I hear that you've also had it identified by a friend of mine, Rob de Vos. A good record.
Best wishes
Martin