Rare Bug / Garden Mothing

I'll kick off with some belated news - I posted a photo on the VC55 Wildlife blog of a random bug that turned up in my garden trap on 18th July. Whilst I don't take a great deal of notice of everything non-lepidopteran in the trap - this did not look familiar.

Recently I was given an ID for it - Miridius quadrivirgatus. Apparently a mainly southern and coastal species which has started turning up more frequently inland - see here. Better still, it is only the third record and second site for VC55. The slight downside is that both of the previous records came from the same Sapcote moth trap on - the two nights previous to mine! Oh well.

Last night was very mild but very breezy. I decided to give the traps their first airing for c20 days. Surprisingly they pulled in a few moths and the catch (14 of 8sp.) included two garden firsts for the year:

(125W MV 4 of 4, 80W/100W actinic/tungsten 10 of 6)
1041 Acleris sparsana 1
1042 Rhomboid Tortrix (Acleris rhombana) 11771 Juniper Carpet (Thera juniperata) 1
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 1
2237 Grey Shoulder-knot (Lithophane ornitopus lactipennis) 12240 Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri hesperica) 2
2262 Brick (Agrochola circellaris) 1
2264 Yellow-line Quaker (Agrochola macilenta) 5
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1

I've updated the moth yearlists as well:
Garden - 9907 of 387sp.
Total - 20038 of 565sp.