August Moths (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

Old Lady was the best a very mediocre lot last night, awaits usual puns.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Just over half of last night's moths were Large Yellow Underwings (35 out of 69), but there was just enough variety in the other half to satisfy, even taking into account 10 Common Marbled Carpets. Snout, two of, were the first for a while, a Black Arches provided stylish quality and a flavour of autumn came courtesy of two new species for the garden; September Thorn & Sallow.

 

[dantheman]

Have managed to keep trapping each night this week, despite the sometimes wild, wet and windy weather.

Moth numbers haven't really suffered, lowest total was 58 on 25th (clearer skies) with max 163 on the 26th, although geometrid and micro numbers and diversity have been down. Had to open up and process the trap in the lounge twice though due to the weather - fortunately mostly only some of the Large Yellow Underwings were flighty, and they head straight for the window where easy to let out! Not many new or exciting though it is true.

New were Snout on the evening of the 23rd near the trap, with Frosted Orange and Vine's Rustic on the 24th. A few new micros too, including a worn Mother of Pearl which had me wanting it to be something else ...

Two Dark Sword Grass on the 25th, 1 on the 27th, Rusty Dot Pearl also, with Flounced Rustic and Setaceous Hebrew Character up to 17 and 10 each respectively last night, up from zero mid-month.

 

[dantheman]

Didn't put the trap on until c9:45pm last night and it was already light rain, but think it cleared up later and went a bit chillier. Checked at 6:40am. Lowest variety of species in the whole of August - 6. No micros for the first time.

Brimstone 1
Dark Sword Grass 1
Large Yellow Underwing 33
Lesser Yellow Underwing 2
Flounced Rustic 17
Rosy Rustic 1

That puts me on 999 Large Yellow Underwings for August (more than all other moths combined!) I'm guessing will break through the 1000 barrier soon ... first night with no Flame Shoulders.

 

[Paul Chapman]

This is a very unreliable feature, certainly wouldn't get accepted in Notts on that basis but yours does look like the Waring illustration too.

FWIW the underside of the underwing looked spot on too but I didn't get a pic of that. It also looked markedly different from all the ones with paler palps, much duskier, without the paler buff tones. I'll let the recorder do what he likes with it, but I'm having it! :t:

I think that most of the features for separating Copper & Svensson's Copper Underwing are reasonably reliable save that the palps wear to make them difficult & the innermost V on the upperwing can be tricky again because of posture & wear. However, when I get fresh individuals, the characters tend to match the underside of the hindwing. Steve Nash recently tweeted to say that he found the underside of the hindwing about 97% reliable presumably comparing the underside of the hindwing to dissection results.

Photo one is a fresh Svensonn's. Black tips with small white tip.

Photo two is a Copper. Pale palps.

Photo three is a comparison between the two with Copper on the left & Svensonn's on the right.

Photo four is the underside of the hindwing on the Svensonn's. The orange/reddish extending inside the black band closest to the body.

Photo five is the underside of the hindwing on the Copper. The orange/reddish not extending inside the black band.

All the best

Paul

 

[Paul Chapman]

Photo six is the upperwing of the Svensonn's with a large innermost V where if you draw a straight line across the point of the V's, it goes inside the discal spot.

Photo seven is the upperwing of the Copper with a more limited innermost V where if you draw a straight line across the point of the V's, it hits the discal spot.

Photo eight are the two together with the Svensonn's on the left & the Copper on the right.

All the best

Paul

 

[Paul Chapman]

And so to August:-

Garden
1st August - 29 moths of 17 species.
2nd August - 28 moths of 15 species - Agriphila tristella new for the year.
3rd August - 21 moths of 13 species.
4th August - 86 moths of 40 species - Scarce Footman, Agriphila straminella & Oak Eggar new for the year.
5th August - 77 moths of 38 species.
6th August - 94 moths of 42 species - Brown Chinamark & Water Veneer new for the year.
7th August - 94 moths of 44 species - Pinion-streaked Snout, Shaded Broad-bar & Donacaula forficella new for the year.
8th August - 143 moths of 59 species - Orange Swift, Flounced Rustic & Paraswammerdamia albicapitella new for the year.
9th August - 177 moths of 63 species - Marbled Beauty, Pebble Hook-tip, Bulrush Wainscot & Limnaecia phragmitella new for the year.
10th August - 173 moths of 53 species - Catoptria falsella new for the year.
11th August - 104 moths of 49 species - Red Underwing new for the year.
12th August - 161 moths of 50 species - Celypha striana, September Thorn & Maiden's Blush new for the year.
13th August - 306 moths of 64 species - Plain Pug new for the year.
14th August - 300 moths of 76 species - Scarce Bordered Straw, Ypsolopha scabrella, Small Dusty Wave, Meal Moth, Straw Underwing, Pyrausta purpuralis & Paraswammerdamia nebulella new for the year.
15th August - 257 moths of 51 species - Bactra lancealana new for the year.
16th August - 181 moths of 56 species - Cypress Pug, Hoary Footman & Agriphila selasella new for the year.
17th August - 110 moths of 32 species - Matelilla fusca new for the year.
18th August - 131 moths of 42 species - Old Lady & Common White Wave new for the year.
19th August - 122 moths of 34 species - Mouse Moth new for the year.
20th August - 85 moths of 27 species - Clavigesta purdeyi new for the year.
21st August - 94 moths of 18 species.
22nd August - 68 moths of 14 species.
23rd August - 112 moths of 22 species.
24th August - did not run.
25th August - did not run.
26th August - 115 moths of 26 species - Ash Pug new for the year.
27th August - did not run.
28th August - 23 moths of 5 species...........!

One night in the field with a few friends at Westnay NNR produced 166 species including Oak Processionary (unsure how many if any Somerset records as not on the Somerset moths website - http://www.somersetmothgroup.org.uk/portal/p/Species Index (Macro species - so perhaps a county first), Orthotelia sparganella, Aristotelia ericinella, Acleris emargana, Vestal, Latticed Heath, Four-spotted Footman, Silky Wainscot, Double Kidney, Pearly Underwing, Dotted Clay & Cream-bordered Green Pea.

Bob provided the two best patch ticks. Archer's Dart on 18th August was our 460th patch macro (a resident just south of our patch in Sand Bay) but that was eclipsed by a Summer Fruit Tree Tortrix Adoxophyes orana on 8th August which is a county first.

Pics - Summer Fruit Tree Tortrix, Archer's Dart, Oak Processionary (two pics) & Hoary Footman.

All the best

Paul

 

[Paul Chapman]

A few more August pics - Red Underwing, Old Lady & Scarce Bordered Straws (three pics).

 

[Paul Chapman]

A few more August pics Cream-bordered Green Pea, Dotted Clay, Small Waved Umber, Latticed Heath & Marbled Green.

 

[Paul Chapman]

A few more August pics - Burnished Brass (two pics), Silky Wainscot, Mouse Moth & Oak Eggar.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Penultimate August pics - Orange Swift, Cypress Pug, Maiden's Blush. Lesser Common Rustic (very probably) & Pyrausta purpuralis.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Final few pics - Agriphila selasella, Catoptria falsella, Orthopygia glaucinalis, Ypsolopha scabrella & Limnaecia phragmitella.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Always feel a bit deficient having to follow that Chapman fellow and his never ending procession of moths! All very instructive though, and if I'd checked through them sooner I might have recognised the new for garden Mouse Moth I found in my trap this morning, instead Andy pointed the way over on the ID thread, thanks again. (The Copper Underwing comparison posts are also very useful.) The only other new moth in amongst a very meagre haul of just 10 moths of 9 species was a much easier to identify Vapourer. September Thorn the best of the rest.

 

[dantheman]

Didn't put the trap on until c9:45pm last night and it was already light rain, but think it cleared up later and went a bit chillier. Checked at 6:40am. Lowest variety of species in the whole of August - 6. No micros for the first time.

Brimstone 1
Dark Sword Grass 1
Large Yellow Underwing 33
Lesser Yellow Underwing 2
Flounced Rustic 17
Rosy Rustic 1

That puts me on 999 Large Yellow Underwings for August (more than all other moths combined!) I'm guessing will break through the 1000 barrier soon ... first night with no Flame Shoulders.

Last night cold and reasonably similar;

Brimstone 1
Dark Sword Grass 1
Large Yellow Underwing 16
Lesser Yellow Underwing 1
Small Square Spot 1
Setaceous Hebrew Character 5
Flounced Rustic 15

Also 3 micros;

Celypha lacunana 1
Eudonia mercurella 1
Micro sp.? 1

The micro I think has to be a worn Rusty Dot Pearl, unless there is another option?? (White legs and underside, but barely bigger than the C. lacunana). DSG was the brightest one so far (always look better on my phone/real life) ...

 

[Farnboro John]

Restricted variety last night but numbers reflecting the season. Total of 40 moths of 10 species, the majority being Large Yellow Underwing (10) and Square-spot Rustic (11 just won) but supported by 5 Pale Mottled Willow and 3 each of Oak Hook-tip, Vines Rustic and Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing. Nicest moth in the trap was a very fresh Garden Carpet.

John

 

[Rubia]

First trap since 18th on 31st (been to Scilly and Dunge doing pelagics and insects - phasmids, shieldbugs & orthoptera). 11 moths of 5 species and all rather uninteresting stuff in trap. It was very cold out there by 11:30, so not surprised it was poor. Dunge Bird Obs did have a rather nice Clifden Nonpareil, which was new for me.

 

[dantheman]

30th August - 42 of 7 macros. A proper nice Rusty Dot Pearl too. First Treble Bar and Frosted Orange

31st August - 55 of 10 macros. Flounced Rustic, (23) beat Large Yellow Underwing (17)!! 2 Straw Dot and Pale Mottled Willow probably most exciting,

Clearer skies and fuller moon leading to lower numbers I believe.

 

[dantheman]

Still messing around with the phone and probably zoom in too much but a better Rusty Dot Pearl here at any rate ...


To finish August off - trapped on 24 nights.

Max totals were (macros only - will have to analyse micros some other time when have a better handle on them);

184 on the 13th and 163 on the 26th, lowest 12 on the 2nd.
Max species diversity (macros) - 25 on the 13th, lowest 7 on the 2nd.

Should probably try and work out the averages, but not that great a species diversity compared to many. Total species recorded = 63.

Total number of moths caught = 1868
Total number of Large Yellow Underwing caught = 1054! (Can anyone beat that for the month?!) Next were Flame Shoulder with 179 and then Flounced Rustic with 140. LYU on all nights bar one, Flame Shoulder all bar two. Commonest Geometrids were Small Phoenix and Brimstone on 34 and 31.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Bringing things up to date. The last few trapping sessions in August were quiet with no new moths for the year:-

29th August - 61 moths of 12 species
30th August - 44 moths of 8 species
31st August - 42 moths of 10 species

I have failed dismally to tally numbers. I will work out an approach at some point......

A few pics - Silver Y, Turnip, Rusty-dot Pearl, Flounced Rustic & Dark Swordgrass.

All the best

Paul