Search This Blog

Saturday 29 October 2016

What a Difference a Day (Night) Makes

I've put traps out for three successive nights, and before last night the catches were very meagre in spite of seemingly favourable conditions, and I was beginning to loose hope of catching any more moths this year.  Last night, however, there were plenty of moths on the wing.  The only difference I could see from Thursday night was much increased moisture in the air - Thursday night was very dry and there was very little insect activity.

As expected, last night's catch was dominated by November Moth types ( 28 counted and I probably missed some) with a scattering of Common Marbled, Spruce and Grey Pine Carpets.  Following Steve's example I recorded a Dark Chestnut, very distinctively glossy and contrasting with the Chestnut from Tuesday night:

                     Chestnut                                        Dark Chestnut

Others worthy of mention: 2 Large Yellow Underwings and a Flame Shoulder (still around!), FFYs Black Rustic and Oak Nycteoline:


I also caught a Tortricid, pale greyish brown with no distinguishing features:


I guess it's probably Bactra lancealana, but can I be certain?

Posted by

2 comments:

  1. sambbryo29 October 2016 at 07:15

    That looks like Epinotia sordidana: an autumnal Tortricid that I see occasionally here (including one on Thursday night)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris Handoll29 October 2016 at 08:33

    Thank you Sam, it looks good from the image in Chris Manley but can I rule out the related species E. caprana and E.solandriana which can be similar, according to S&P?

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)