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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hkmoths" data-source="post: 1751242" data-attributes="member: 21752">Hong Kong - 27 Feb 2010 - 350 spp. in one night!Well, seems like the north-western Palaearctic moths are starting to wake up a little.  The same applies in HK - at the beginning of the month I trapped and saw 40 or so species, but even though there were two weeks of cool or cold weather, the last 10 days have been distinctly warm, with daytimes reaching around 25°C and the nights around 20°C. I did my monthly Lam Tsuen Valley survey (at the head of the valley, not on my roof at home) on 27th Feb, with three 125W mv lights / Robinson traps set.What was subsequently recorded blew away all expectations - around 350 species, which is over 150 species more than the previous best night's recording in February.I've posted some pics on Flickr (link from my signature, below) and a few more are added below. I think I'm going to have to use a polarising filter in future to cut out the reflection of the flash from the scales. Has anyone tried this for moth photography at night?Highlights - three Actias selene (Indian Moon Moth), including the first female I've seen in the wild; two males of a possibly undescribed Gymoscelis (pug moth) that has a whorl of scent scales on the underside of the hindwing, which I've only seen once before, the second HK record of an unidentified Hydatocapnia (Geometridae), the HK endemic crambid Palpita parvifraterna, good numbers of the globally restricted (S. & S.E. China) hawkmoth Dahria rubiginosa, a footman moth (possibly in the genus Teulisna) that I've not seen before, the globally restricted Acidon paradoxa (one record from Bhutan in the 1890s, then rediscovered in HK in 1997), the many plume Alucita spilodesma and the always impressive Lyssa zampa, for once posing at a realistic height for the camera rather than in the tree tops.Downside is I've more setting of specimens from one night's recording to do than I've done in a decade. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown    :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" />  There are several new tortricids, and something tiny that is a bit bigger than a Nepticulid (around 3mm long), a metallic brassy green, possibly a Heliozelid...  I've pinned it reasonably straight, will have to see how well it sets once it's out of the relaxing box it's been in overnight; I'll be using my smallest setting board - a 2 cm wide balsa wood strip with a 1.5mm groove that has a couple of gracillariids on it at the moment. There are other new species - an undescribed Hepatica sp. (Noctuid, L.A.Q. clade), and an Epipaschiine (Pyralidae) that looks like a Teliphasa sp., but not one I recognise.It took four hours to go through just three traps, even using a digital voice recorder to list the species and count the individuals (around 1,700 moths!)., Maybe next year we'll have the National Moth Night at the start of March <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />Still in recovery mode...cheers,  Roger.</blockquote>

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