Hardly mayhem, but a steady trickle of moths arrived at the traps on Sunday (MV) and Monday (2x actinic) nights. The highlights were a Puss Moth last night, and a Great Prominent on each of the nights. This was particularly surprising since prior to this year there have only been 3 previous records here, and the tally has now doubled. It's always a great thrill to see both of these species.
Apart from these, several FFYs: Brimstone, Pale Prominent, Swallow Prominent and Lesser Swallow Prominent, Scalloped Hazel, Muslin Moth, Flame Shoulder and Nut-tree Tussock.
Swallow Prominent Lesser Swallow Prominent
Routine garden work on Saturday produced an unexpected find amongst leaf litter in the strawberry bed:
It wriggles, so there's every chance that a moth might emerge before too long rather than a load of flies! I'm expecting it to be an Elephant Hawk Moth.
I'm obviously lucky here, last night I had a bumper bag of 14 Great Prominents, only 4 less than the plentiful Hebrew Characters. Also had a FFM, Least Black Arches, which is far too feisty for me to photograph yet. Very pretty little moth. Also in the bag were FFYs, Nut-tree Tussock and Pale Tussock.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to be catching something at last!