I've had several nights of huge catches , 50+ species. Unfortunately on Monday, after a long walk the previous day, I spent two hours hunched over the trap, sorting and counting, only to do something unmentionable to my lower back and spend the next few hours rolling in agony. I am now just identifying, not counting, leaving the moths in the trap for later release and trapping every other night. slowly improving but cant walk far!
June 1st saw 19 Elephant Hawk Moths, Lobster, Poplar Grey, Gold Spot and Fox Moth amongst some 250 moths.
3rd June I had a Red necked Footman and a Four dotted Footman, Brussels Lace , Sallow Kitten and a May Highflyer, all FFY
7th saw a Broken-barred Carpet,Marbled and/or Rufous Minor(Is there a good guide to telling these apart?) True Lovers Knot and a lovely Double line, amongst 12 FFYs and well over 150 moths
A very Hairy legged Double line
Pale Prominent in and interesting resting position or is it laying eggs?
I think this is a Poplar Gray, but it seems a bit too well marked
Sorry to hear of your back problem, Jane, it sounds like a big hindrance to your mothing activities, and how inconvenient at such a busy time of year and NMN a few days away. I hope that it mends quickly! My first impression of your last photo was Knot-grass because it seems to have the white comma-like mark on at least one FW in the 'dorsal blotch' position. Poplar Grey has two white spots on the thorax (at least, mine did, see the photo in my blog yesterday). Otherwise I think they're quite similar, PG is a bit bigger and duller grey judging by the ones I've seen. Regarding the Minors, I'm usually happy to record Middle-barred but others go down on the record sheet as 'Marbled Minor agg'. I hope all this helps!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info re Minors , that's what I will do. I hope to do something for Moth night, I will put a post on our Village FB page and see if anyone wants to come along and view the catch. I did similar last year and had a few but it is hard getting people interested enough to come and look.
ReplyDeleteWill record as a Knot grass.
Fantastic stuff. I concur with Chris re the mark on the grey and think it's a Knotgrass.
ReplyDelete