Carmarthenshire Moth and Butterfly Group

I must apologise for my tardy efforts with regard to posting my sightings this year - I had meant to for some time, but other jobs and life got in the way. I must also thank Adam Dare for persevering in posting his interesting records from Burry Port, always accompanied by his superb photos; the same gratitude is extended to anyone else who has made the effort to publicise any interesting records on the Carmarthenshire moth blog - thank you!

Above: Emperor moth, which may be new for my garden trap (24.4.26).

Above: Broad-barred white, usually seen in my traps as ones or twos in most years (19.6.26).

Above: Brown scallop, new to Carms. I was initially stuck as to the i/d of this moth when looking at a different `in-focus` photo which did not show the wing barring as well as the slightly blurred one above. Fortunately Adam came to the rescue with his Obsidentify facility and the i/d was easier after that! (21.6.26).

Above: Another almost annual visitor to my garden trap - lime hawk-moth. As I have mentioned before, this quite small hawk-moth may be feeding (as a caterpillar)on local elms rather than its namesake tree. (20.6.26)

Above: the Cream-bordered Green Pea is certainly annual with me, with repeat sightings and sometimes as multiples of twos or even threes. It has only become regular in the last c 5 years or less (26.5.26).

Above: regular on the coastal sand dunes or other dry habitat, Homoeosoma sinuella must have been blown inland to my woodland-edge garden. (22.6.26).

Above: another annual visitor to my garden trap, the leopard is always nice to see. (24.6.26)

Above: Scarlet tigers are infrequent in my garden, but singletons occur in my trap (or by day) from time to time.

Above: Two footmen - a male four-spotted footman on the left and a scarce footman to the right. Males of the four-spotted normally outnumber the females. (7.7.26).

Above: not to be confused (name-wise) with the four-spotted footman above, this is a four-dotted footman, a very infrequent visitor to my trap. (23.6.26).

Above: a male four-spotted footman was shown earlier but this is a female, showing some of her spots. (14.7.26).

Above: a pristine European corn-borer was found resting on my garden bench behind the trap. It was in a very awkward position (between the slats) and many pyralids are very `flighty`, escaping at the first chance. I surprised myself (given the circumstances and not being fully awake) by catching this individual. (14.7.26).

Above: only my 2nd Ni moth (16.7.26), the first being some years back on a trapping session near Pendine.

Small mottled willows started to appear in small numbers in late May (eg 21/5, when 3 were caught), but much larger numbers appeared in July (reflecting counts elsewhere) with an incredible 322 individuals in/near my two traps (MV & mains actinic) on 10/7, though that number was (just!) exceeded by Barry Stewart at west Gower on the same night. The SMWs were thickly covering the cartoons within the traps, on the outside of the traps and on benches, walls etc. Good subsequent numbers (but < 100) were noted on a couple of other nights and even larger totals were made elsewhere in S & SW Britain. Other migrants in my traps included singles of vestal and Palpita vitrealis and, initially flushed when doing chores in my garden on 28/5, an eastern bordered straw affored close and excellent views but frustratingly, to say the least, during the c 3 minutes when I went to get my camera and a plastic container, it had gone. Luckily Sam and Arfon subsequently saw this species. Another migrant that was elusive was a flighty striped hawk-moth, flushed when doing an early morning inspection of my roof-top actinic. It was resting outside the trap but flew away around the side of the house as I approached the trap. I cursed, but then - within less than a minute - it came buzzing back, alighted briefly - but flew off again!