From the garden trap, 13/05/2010 & Kermorgant

Despite the continued cold overnight conditions, after a slight increase in day time temps yesterday I got the traps out and hoped that at least something would come in. I was not surprised to find only few moths this morning, though on the positive half were firsts for the garden this year. Total catch was 9 of 8 sp. (125W MV 5 of 5, 80W actinic 4 of 4).

1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 1
1980 Eyed Hawk-moth (Smerinthus ocellata) 1 [first for year]
2078 Least Black Arches (Nola confusalis) 1
2092 Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) 1
2102 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) 2 [first for year]
2160 Bright-line Brown-eye (Lacanobia oleracea) 1 [first for year]
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1
2334 Rustic Shoulder-knot (Apamea sordens) 1 [first for year]

I'm going to hang on to the Eyed Hawk. I still have the pupa from the caterpillar I found in the garden last year so I'll wait to see if that emerges and hopefully have a pair to breed - hawk larvae are always impressive and raising a few will keep the kids interested over the summer.

Flame Shoulder

Rustic Shoulder-knot

Eyed Hawk-moth - or at least the colourful bits, everything else was an out-of focus blur ....

Saturday night is National Moth Night 2010.

The date varies each year so that different key species can be targeted, and over time the whole of the main flight period for most species is covered. This is great in theory, but in practice running the event on a pre-determined date inevitably leads to the event coinciding with shite weather. The forecast for Saturday night is not much better than it has been all week, though the day time temps should creep up a little more again so I guess I'll be out somewhere.


Meanwhile, that penalty shoot out still hurts but this is just the tonic we needed: