Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Friday 22 April 2011

Thursday 21st Round Two - From The Garden Trap

After the birding yesterday, and before I headed out for some mothing at Cossington, I sorted out the garden traps. Garden mothing over the last few days has produced 17 firsts for the year bringing the garden yearlist up to 61, but numbers of individuals are still quite low. Only Wednesday night produced a reasonable catch total. Summaries as follows:

18/04/2011
Total catch 12 of 8sp.
(125W MV 7 of 5; 160W blended 5 of 3)
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1
1747 Streamer (Anticlea derivata) 1
1835 White-spotted Pug (Eupithecia tripunctaria) 1 (NFY)
1853 Oak-tree Pug (Eupithecia dodoneata) 2
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 2
1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 1 (NFY)
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 2
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 2

Brimstone Moth

19/04/2011 - to lit window
0697 Agonopterix arenella 1 (NFY)

20/04/2011
Total catch 40 of 20sp.
(125W MV 23 of 14; 160W blended 17 of 14)
0247 Tinea trinotella 2 (NFY)
0544 Coleophora albicosta 1 (NFY)
0648 White-shouldered House Moth (Endrosis sarcitrella) 1 (NFY)
0667 Semioscopis steinkellneriana 2
0697 Agonopterix arenella 1
1428 Bee Moth (Aphomia sociella) 1 (NFY)
1648 Pebble Hook-tip (Drepana falcataria) 2 (NFY)
1651 Chinese Character (Cilix glaucata) 2 (NFY)
1728 Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) 3 (NFY)
1747 Streamer (Anticlea derivata) 2
1834 Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) 1 (NFY)
1835 White-spotted Pug (Eupithecia tripunctaria) 1
1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 2
1853 Oak-tree Pug (Eupithecia dodoneata) 3
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
1883 Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata) 1 (NFY)
1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 2
2063 Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica) 1 (NFY)
2092 Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) 2 (NFY)
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 9

Tinea trinotella

White-shouldered House Moth - incidentally I always write ensar for this in the notebook as it is the short cut for recording in MapMate (as in ENdrosis SARcitrella)

Pebble-hook Tip - by far the earliest for the garden and only 7 previous individuals, all singles in different years, so getting two in one night is unusual

Chinese Character

Yellow-barred Brindle

21/04/2011
Total catch 20 of 15sp.
(125W MV 9 of 8; 160W blended 11 of 9)
0287 Caloptilia robustella 1 (NFY)
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1
1728 Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) 1
1747 Streamer (Anticlea derivata) 1
1817 Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata) 1 (NFY)
1834 Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) 3
1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 1
1883 Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata) 1
1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 1
2092 Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) 1
2186 Powdered Quaker (Orthosia gracilis) 1
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 1
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 4
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1
2469 Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix) 1 (NFY)

Caloptilia robustella

5 comments:

Stewart said...

Some cracking moths in there Mark. I'd love to see a Pebble Hook Tip. Still cool here I'm afraid, but its just a waiting game...

Whats the crack with Mapmate? I use it but can you let me know the shortcut you mention? I didnt know you can use two parts of two words?

Cheers Stewart

Skev said...

Yes Stewart - it's picking up with species but still low numbers here.

In MapMate, there are a few ways you can make data entry quicker. Have you worked out how to Save/Get Common Settings and Lock Valid Fields yet? Makes entering each night's list a lot quicker when all you are typing is the Taxon and Quantity.

In the Taxon field, and assuming you have the defaults set to Lepidoptera to limit the options even further, you can either enter a pertinent part of the vernacular or scientific name (eg: try typing stein and you should immediately get Semioscopis steinkelleneriana when you hit enter) or you can enter the first two letters of the genus and the first three letters of the specific name and you should also get an immediate match (eg seste also gives you Semioscopis steinkellneriana).

This works great for species where either the vernacular name is too long or too common (like everything that starts with Common, so mypal for Common Wainscot is a good one), or where there is no vernacular and the scientific name is ridiculous (like Semioscopis steinkellneriana again).

Other ones I always use are:
xexan
hopse
eppos
setac

You can also 'Train' MapMate to accept your own shortcuts. I've set mine to accept brim for Brimstone Moth. Can't quite remember how to do it but it's in the help guide somewhere under Data Entry tips I guess.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Gorgeous moths! 2 questions:
1) What does NFY mean?
2) Do you pose your moths on the leaf background?

Skev said...

Hello Katie,

NFY = New For Year

Posing moths on leaves/substrate - yes, afraid so in the main. I could photograph some of them on the eggboxes but that doesn't look much better. Most moth photos you'll see are taken after the moth has been potted up and then put onto to something suitable.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Thanks for replying! I like the green background; it's unique and helps some of the moth coloring to stand out. Although, if I saw only one pic, I'd assume that's where you found the moth.