Well slightly later than I would have liked but I am now up and running again as my new black bulbs have arrived, the layout of the garden in our new house is such that had I tried to fire up my MVs I would have been lynched by two or three neighbours. The new black bulbs whilst less effective when compared to the MV are more discrete and allow me to trap again.
The first couple of nights have been quite promising with 40+ species each night. The available date for the NT is even worse than for Queensland - on the face of it 70-80% of what I have recorded so far are new for the Territory as there seem to be no published records but I suspect that this is more a reflection on the lack of recorders and the availability of records rather than a true indication of species status.
Here are a few highlights:
Dichromia quinqualis (Erebidae; Hypeninae) - a species I have recorded once in Cairns
Unknown Erebidae - absolutely no idea as to genus for this one...
Hypocala toana (Erebidae; Hypocalinae) - a new species for me. Have caught a couple of individuals each night I have trapped so far
Imber tropicus (Sphingidae) - one of five species of hawk that I had last night and a new species for me.
Meyrickella (Erebidae; Hypeninae) - this is similar to Meyrickella torquesauria that I caught in Shannonvale but the white markings are a different shape; this may just be natural phenotypic plasticity but all of the published photos for torquesauria look to be identical so given that the next closest record for Meyrickella is in fact mine from Cairns, a mere 1100km to my east I wonder if this could be a different species.
The first couple of nights have been quite promising with 40+ species each night. The available date for the NT is even worse than for Queensland - on the face of it 70-80% of what I have recorded so far are new for the Territory as there seem to be no published records but I suspect that this is more a reflection on the lack of recorders and the availability of records rather than a true indication of species status.
Here are a few highlights:
Dichromia quinqualis (Erebidae; Hypeninae) - a species I have recorded once in Cairns
Unknown Erebidae - absolutely no idea as to genus for this one...
Hypocala toana (Erebidae; Hypocalinae) - a new species for me. Have caught a couple of individuals each night I have trapped so far
Imber tropicus (Sphingidae) - one of five species of hawk that I had last night and a new species for me.
Meyrickella (Erebidae; Hypeninae) - this is similar to Meyrickella torquesauria that I caught in Shannonvale but the white markings are a different shape; this may just be natural phenotypic plasticity but all of the published photos for torquesauria look to be identical so given that the next closest record for Meyrickella is in fact mine from Cairns, a mere 1100km to my east I wonder if this could be a different species.