Quick post: little and large.

Seeing a vague cloudiness in the late evening sky last night, I rescinded (after earlier deciding that I was n`t going to trap) and set up one trap in my Pwll garden - `just in case`. Moth numbers and variety was fair (almost 40 spp. of macros) and included the first dark sword-grass of the year; two silver y`s were also present.
A Mompha propinquella (you`ll need to click on that pic to enlarge) and a female oak eggar were also in the catch (see below).

        

ID Confirmtion Needed

I think this is a Waved Carpet but as it is down as scarce in my ID books thought I had better check in case I have got it wrong.

...back to the brownfield moths - last night at Machynys.

I obviously did n`t have time this morning to write about last night`s trapping at Machynys, Llanelli, but I have now had the chance to go through some of the moths, though several micros need further examination or retention for more expert determination.
As it was mainly overcast, with only light winds and fairly warm last night (29/7), the number and variety of moths awaiting me this morning was quite reasonable, making trapping at this rich brownfield site certainly a change from my usual garden assemblage.
Perhaps the best species last night (to my eyes at least) were the six barred rivulets that were caught. Its caterpillars feed on red bartsia, which grows frequently on the dry soils hereabouts.

                                    
                                                             Above: barred rivulet.
Dingy shears, lime-speck pugs, wormwood pugs, yellow-tails, scarce footman were some of the other macros of slight interest in a catch that was dominated by smoky wainscots (35) whilst the nine silver y`s that were caught was the highest number of this species recorded by me this year, and suggesting a little immigration. Many markedly smaller and darker individuals of the common rustic agg. hinted at possible lesser common rustic.

                                                 Above: possible lesser common rustic.

                                                               Above: dingy shears

                                                             Above: lime-speck pug.
Quite a few micros were caught and one trap, deliberately placed within a large stand of mugwort, had two moths that depend on this plant - seven individuals of the very attractive Epiblema foenella (which was recently caught at this site) and four bordered pugs.
Cochylis atricapitata was also in the trap - this is a cochylid that feeds on ragwort.

                                                        Above: Cochylis atricapitata.

I was considering trapping at home or somewhere local tonight, but the clearing skies (and a changed forecast of more of the same) means that I`ll probably have a rest instead.

A busy night at Maenol ..

.. resulted in an entire morning occupied with emptying the two actinic traps, photographing and documenting the contents.  Nothing startling it has to be said, but nice to see FFYs Black Arches and Udea lutealis:

In fact U.lutealis may be a first for me but I haven't checked, and as the failure to remember two previous Bordered Beauties has shown, my memory is getting fragile!  Two more of this species arrived overnight but I won't post a photo, others have done so recently.

Others worthy of note were Yellow-barred Brindle and Caryocolum blandella:

I positioned a small actinic trap close to the bank where Greater Stitchwort abounds in the hope of attracting C.blandella and it seems to have worked.

Perhaps the most striking of the night's visitors was this Great Diving Beetle:

It dwarfed everything else in the trap but didn't seem to have had a mothy breakfast!

I omitted to mention the Cloaked Carpet, a little worn now, I think that their season is coming to an end.

More brownfield moths...

Left my three actinic traps at a brownfield site at Llanelli again last night, and some interesting moths were caught, including some good records. I shall try to post after processing the records later today or tomorrow morning, so you`ll have to make do with a view of the general area at 5.30am - the moths will follow!

Above: sunrise over `The Channel`, Machynys, Llanelli (also known by the stupid name `Delta Lakes`, contrived by a council official).

Just two pics...

I set out one trap in the garden last night and a good mix of the usual late July/early August gang were there, with black arches numbers starting to pick up - five were present. An interesting-looking skinny, black pyralid flew off just as I looked at it, so I`ll not know what it was and it was not helpful that my eyes were out of focus only some 5 mins after tumbling out of bed for the `moth shift`. A very few micros were potted up to look at later.

Above: a second generation purple thorn with its slightly curled wings. The upper hind-wing has a dark spot in the outer area, aiding i/d (not visible in this photo).

Above: a rather buff-backed male four-spotted footman, the largest of the regular footmen species. The large size is a `clincher` and the black legs are obvious too. Compare it to one of my more `standard` grey-backed males in a very recent blog.
It might be worth trapping tonight, before colder winds come over the weekend.

More from the Garden

Yesterday a brown micro, perched on a Lady's Mantle leaf, obligingly made its way into a tube that I happened to be carrying.  Not brilliant photography, but hopefully good enough:

I suspect that it's the gelechiid Bryotropha terrella, but confirmation (or denial) would be welcome.

This colourful caterpillar was found on the leaf of a Hazel tree close to my potting shed yesterday:

I suspect that it's a Grey Dagger larva, and if so it's of some significance because I have found fresh-looking Dagger moths resting on the shed on several occasions in the past.  This may provide a good indication of the identity of any such moths found there in future.  Question: is it justifiable to draw this conclusion from two independent events?

Fairly close to the caterpillar, on a Rose leaf, was this freshly-emerged Garden Rose Tortrix:

I shall be scouring the garden for more surprises this afternoon - and may well put a trap or two out tonight.

More from the hills...

On Wednesday night (27/7) I trapped - as you know from my previous blog - at the old lead mine site at Nant y Bai, Rhandirmwyn. Yesterday, I took the opportunity to check the few micros that I`d caught (all common species) and also two Hadenid moths. When Chris Manley and I trapped at this site earlier in June, we caught quite a few lychnis. On this latest occasion at the site, I too trapped a definite lychnis quite early into the trapping session, but I later noticed that by far the greater majority of these `lychnis` subsequently `looked different`. At actinic light, they are a very active moth and even when `potted up` would n`t remain still for inspection, so I put two specimens that I`d caught away with a few other moths to take home to check.
These were, as noted above, checked yesterday and I believe that they may be the dark western form of tawny shears. I include a photo of one of them below, together with a photo of  a campion that was caught in my garden trap last night (I have n`t a photo of a lychnis to hand, but it`s generally very similar to the campion).
There are older Rothamsted records of tawny shears from Dafydd Davies`s erstwhile trap at Ty`r Ysgol, Rhandirmwyn (less than a mile away) and the species is shown (on the latest NBN distribution maps) as quite widely occurring in coastal Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Glamorgan, with some older inland records also in Ceredigion (perhaps at similar lead mine sites) . Carmarthenshire shows up as a strange and seemingly anomalous blank in its distribution. The MBGBI also shows some coastal records for Carmarthenshire.
As I noted in my previous blog, sea campion - a potential food plant for this moth - is quite abundant on spoil at the lead mine site.

                                                             Above: tawny shears

                                                     Above: a campion for comparison.

Mini Micro Fest

I trapped last night, too, but the turn-out was a disappointing 35 moths of 23 species, with two FFYs, Purple Thorn and Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing.  Yesterday was more interesting though, I stumbled across four micros during the day, starting indoors with another Case-bearing Clothes Moth (Tilia pellionella).  I usually see these fluttering around, but this one was at rest on a skirting board so I was able to apprehend it without a struggle.

N.B. I haven't been pulling its legs off!  The lone leg is from a dead moth that was a previous occupant of the box.

Then during the afternoon I caught two moths at rest on windows, one in its usual place (the woodshed), both I believe to be Borhausenia fuscescens:

Last and least, with a FW length of about 3mm quite the smallest moth that I can recall catching, this one was on the window of the utility room, where I had emptied the trap earlier on, so it may well have been amongst the catch:

The yellowish head and eye-caps make this a Stigmella sp. I think, and in the absence of any white markings it may be a S.ruficapitella type, but no doubt this would require examination of genitalia to confirm and I can't see myself ever being proficient enough to tackle something so small!

As an afterthought I'm including one more micro in this narrative, one that was in the trap on Monday night.  Unfortunately the photo is not very good and the moth has since escaped so I can't improve on it, but I suspect that it might have been an Elachista sp., possibly E. canapennella:

Cwmllwyd 27 July

Like Ian, I was a little disappointed with last night's show: only 88 moths of 40 species assembled at the MV trap, with seven of them FFYs. These were Northern Spinach, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Common Footman and those illustrated below:

 Tawny Speckled Pug

 Double-striped Pug

 Bordered Beauty

Slender Brindle

Back to the hills...

I had been meaning to return to the old lead mine site at Nant y Bai near Rhandirmwyn since Chris Manley and I visited back in June, mainly to see if I could catch some later season upland moths such as the scarce silver y. However, life`s tasks intervened, and it was only yesterday that, at short notice, I decided it `was now or never` if I were to have any chance of trapping a scarce silver y, as its season was coming to an end.
An hour`s drive took me to the site and I set up three battery-run actinics - one near the informal car parking spot, another on a bilberry/heather slope adjacent to a conifer plantation and the last some distance up the boulder-strewn streamside.

                  Above: awaiting the moths - my furthermost trap up the streamside `cwm`.

I awaited the moths to arrive, but they were slow in coming and it was then that I noted that the pestilential midges of the last visit were totally absent. It was too cold, with starry, clear skies overhead in the absolute pitch black night (except for a vague light in the northern sky above the hills). I could see my breath in the torchlight, just as in winter. More cloud had been forecast by the Met Office, so I was disappointed.
I awaited until midnight, periodically inspecting the two nearest traps - which had, by now, a steady but not numerous stream of moth visitors - and, perhaps unwisely considering the remote location and the absolute darkness, remembered words that I had read the previous afternoon, does neb yn gwybod beth digwyddodd ar y mynydd (`nobody knows what happened on the mountain` - about rustling, robberies and even murder in these very uplands). Sensibly, my thoughts re-focused on the moths!
At midnight, I did a final inspection of the contents of the three traps, dealing with and collecting in the furthest one first. The list was not impressive - a little over 30 species of macro-moth and 8+ of micros (I suspect that it was too cold for the latter). Among the macros was a narrow-winged pug (no photo sorry - it `jumped ship` due to my tired clumsiness), dotted clay, small elephant hawk-moth, red-necked footman, true lover`s-knots and a gothic. I`d been saying very recently that I only see the gothic about once annually on average, but here was my second in a week and yet another was fluttering against my kitchen window back home at Pwll when I had a late supper/early breakfast at c 1.30am!
Of the macros at the lead mine traps, a Hadena sp. (thought at first to be a lychnis, but is being checked, as several at least looked like tawny shears) was by far the commonest with at least 25+ individuals (most other species were literally just in ones or twos), a reflection of the local abundance of one of its food-plants at the site, sea campion, which grows on the lead mine spoil.
Only eight or so species of micros were recorded (I`ve still got a couple to look at) including the tortricid Eupoecelia angustana, shown below:

I noted five species of crambid grass moths within the poor micro catch - the easy-to-identify upland Catopria margaritella and C. pinella and a species of drier habitat that was associated with the streamside shingle banks - Agriphila inquinatella.

                           Above: This is A. inquinatella rather than the similar A. geniculea.

                                                          Above: Catopria pinella.

In the event, I did n`t catch that scarce silver y but it`s a grand site for trapping and, like MacArthur, `I will return`. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Llansteffan  Monday 25th

A   catch of  49 moths of 31 species last night.  The Gothic was a FFY   for me .
Melanie Jones  helped me with identification of  the other two:  a very worn  Clouded Brindle
and the Wainscot we thought was probably a Common. It was about 25mm long and had a large dark spot on its lower abdomen  .

 Gothic

Clouded Brindle

Common Wainscot ?

Saturday night moths...

The Pwll garden traps had some interest in them from the night of Saturday 23/7 - a fair mix of the usual July moths, with a sprinkling of `good moths`. The weather forecast was wrong - it was supposed to be light rain at about 9.00pm in the evening and clearing later, but a light drizzle awaited me at about 5.30am this morning, with very many moths trapped upside down on the puddled surface of my flat roof, where I`d placed one trap. Nevertheless, there were moths of interest safely trapped inside this and another trap placed in the garden.
Probably the best moth - I far as I was concerned - was a solitary small chocolate-tip, a very scarce species that I`ve long wanted to catch. Indeed, I`ve unsuccessfully targeted areas of aspen in the past in the hope of catching one. Presumably mine came from areas of tree plantings on the adjacent Millennium Coastal Park which include stands of aspen and where, hopefully, small chocolate-tips have established themselves. Their caterpillars also feed on creeping willow Salix repens, which occurs on the coast and some inland heaths. Perhaps they may be at Steve Clarke`s aspen woodland?

Above: small chocolate-tip. In the lower photo, the moth is `whirring` its wings after release.

Above: I suspect that this is the so-called `dark ash-bud moth` Prays ruficeps, which used to be regarded as a dark form (var. rustica) of P. fraxinella in the past. I seem to recall Sam having it in the last year or two?

         Above: the pyralid Phycitodes binaevella (associated with thistles in open situations).

                    Above: another (male) four-spotted footman popped by again last night.

                       Above: a dark male Chilo phragmitella, from adjacent wetland habitat.

Other moths of minor interest included a FFY black arches, singles of migrant rush veneer and silver y (together on the same egg carton), small rivulets, and bordered beauties.

Moths at Saron, Llandysul

Have been trapping regularly and getting a good quantity of moths of various species typical for time of year. This one I haven't caught here before. I think it is Catoptria margaritella.

Salem

I set the trap at my parents smallholding last night for the first time for a while. The skies cleared so it wasn't as warm as it has been but there was still plenty of moths to keep me occupied. 370(ish) moths of 82(ish) species was my best of the year I think with the trap (and surroundings) dominated by 70+ dingy footmen...

Highlights for me were a couple of dark spectacles (plus a regular for comparison), 11 magpies, brussels lace, oak hook-tip, gold spangle, small rufous, lychnis, bordered beauty, FFY of six-striped rustic and antler and migrants in the shape of a couple of silver Y and a diamond-back.

Other nice moths were chevron, beautiful and plain golden y, prominents in the shape of iron, coxcomb, lesser swallow and pebble, large emeralds are always nice to see as are buff-tip, buff arches and burnished brass...

Micros were in fairly sparse numbers but they were represented by Carcina quercana (which refused to pose for a photo), Evergestis pallidata, Eucosma cana, Agriphila tristella, Chrysoteuchia culmella, Udea prunalis, Udea olivalis, Celypha lacunana, Agapeta hamana, mother-of-pearl and a couple of Cnephasia and Bactra sp. There was also this grotty individual - would anyone like to attempt an id please?? Epinotia?

The only non-moths of interest were one Cixius nervosus and this rather handsome caddisfly which I believe is Athripsodes bilineatus.