Blossom Underwing

 Amongst the 150 moths in the trap this morning- sounds a lot but 92 were Small Quakers - was this Blossom Underwing.

New moth on my desk!

Not much happening recently so it was a bit of a suprise to find a new moth for me and Abernaint (Mompha divisella) wandering across my desk today!

A smattering of migrants

After a pretty quiet few weeks nice to see a few migrants in this morning's trap along with a handful of seasonal regulars. The highlight was this Palpita vitrealis, other migrants were a single Scarce Bordered Straw and 5 Rusty Dot Pearls.

34.009 Cosmopterix pulchrimella

Ian very kindly brought me three of these tiny (4.5mm long) moths to photograph. They are quite lively but here's at least one reasonable image.

A profitable trapping session - or `the night of the white-points`

 The weather omens for Friday night (17/10) were favourable and out went my actinic (on its roof-top perch) and the MV (on the ground at the far end of the garden). The traps were checked just before first-light, though inspection the previous evening had shown that there was an ingress of moths and that it would be a worthwhile trap. Some 32 species or so (still one or two to check) were counted the next morning. Of particular note was the very large numbers of white-points and merveille du jour (11 and 10 respectively), most of whom were in the actinic, especially regarding the white-points.

I had to take `bulk photos` of these last-named species, utilising a lightweight wooden board placed on the lawn adjacent to thick herbaceous plantings, so that the moths could be placed somewhere safe after photography. The moths were cooled down in their individual plastic containers for about 3 hrs beforehand and then very gently placed on the board with the containers still above them (the lids, of course, were taken off beforehand). They were positioned close to each other to facilitate a group photo. My camera was ready and the containers were quickly - but carefully and gently - taken off. The white-points were done first, then the `mervs`. One of the white-points immediately flew off (it had been whirring its wings to warm up) and another ran off. I re-caught the latter, but it was so restless it might have ran into and dispersed my assembled group, so it was ignored. I took a good half dozen photos of the group. A similar procedure was carried out with the `mervs`, where only one escaped (another of the total was not included as it had been seriously injured - by a robin? - and was missing its abdomen).

                                               Above: 9 of the 11 white-points that were caught.

                                              Above: group photo of Merveille du jours.

                                  Above: scarce bordered straw - another welcome visitor.

                                                Above: feathered thorn, new for year.

                                                           Above: Blair`s shoulder-knot.

                                                     Above: Pyralis farinalis (`meal moth`)

Cosmopterix pulchimella new to Carmarthenshire

 Long overdue and already known from Glam (some dozen or so records) and Pembs and a moth that I`ve been on the look-out for for some years. Yesterday I chanced upon larval workings of this micro in an urban back-lane between Queen Victoria Road and Brynmor Road, Llanelli. Most were vacated but some were occupied by larvae and today, (16/10), several adult moths were spotted amongst some growths of pellitory-of-the-wall that I collected to search for more larvae. To be photographed later.

The larvae and adults were confined to a group of about four large plants growing at the interface of a sandstone wall and the lane - very robust plants c. 2ft x 1ft and not like the usual small plants seen on dry, sunny walls. The actual site  (SN50320 00022) with these plants was NW-facing and no larvae or adults were found on smaller plants elsewhere in the lane. A photo of the lane (with the plants to the bottom-left) is shown below.

White-point

 A white-point was among a small catch of moths last night (15/10), at W Llanelli. On the same night large numbers (eg one was 40+) were being reported as coming to traps in SW England.