From the garden trap - 05/06/2008

Total catch 69 of 30sp.
(125W MV 30 of 17sp., 80W actinic 39 of 19sp.)

First for the year in garden:
Common Swift (Hepialus lupulinus) 2
Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) 1
Lychnis (Hadena bicruris) 1
Highest counts:
Clouded Silver (Lomographa temerata) 8
Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 7
Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) 7
Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) 6
Other highlights:
Argyresthia cupressella 1
May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata) 1
Sycamore (Acronicta aceris) 1


Peppered Moth

From the garden trap - 04/06/2008

Hurrah - another garden tick!

Total catch 43 of 20sp.
(125W MV 19 of 12sp., 80W actinic 24 of 15sp.)

First for garden:
Argyresthia cupressella 1
First for year (in garden):
Crambus lathoniellus 1
Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) 1
White Ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda) 1
Vine's Rustic (Hoplodrina ambigua) 1
Highest counts:
Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 8


Argyresthia cupressella - actually a County and British tick aswell if I could be arsed to keep lists for them.


Crambus lathoniellus - in real life the back end was also in focus.


Small Square-spot - this species appears to be cyclic in it's appearances in my garden.

This week, I have mostly been listening to ..

Kraftwerk. I have all of their stuff from Autobahn onwards (plus one of their earlier offerings - 'Kraftwerk'). I really like the late 70s / early 80s studio albums Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Computer World, but I also enjoy the early 90s re-workings on The Mix and the more recent Tour De France Soundtracks and live Minimum-Maximum. All great great stuff as far as I'm concerned. Seeing Kraftwerk live is all about the music and visuals - don't expect a scintillating energetic performance! I saw them in Birmingham and London in July 1991 during the Mix Tour, and I was also lucky enough to see them at the Leicester Poly on 18/06/1992 - fucking awesome! It as one of a couple of warm-up gigs arranged at short notice before Kraftwerk joined U2, Public Enemy and Big Audio Dynamite at the Stop Sellafield concert in Manchester the following night.

Gisborne's Gorse, Charnwood Lodge 31/05/2008

I'll be busy at work next week so no chance of any out of garden mothing before National Moth Night 2008, so I decided to leave traps running overnight at Charnwood Lodge.

Total catch was 345 of 59sp., although there were no surpises or major highlights. Plenty of new species for the year though. Total catch list available from VC55 Yahho group for subscribers:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/VC55Moths/files/Site_Reports/Charnwood_Lodge/

Highest counts:
Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) 56
Brown Silver-line (Petrophora chlorosata) 50
Marbled Brown (Drymonia dodonaea) 35
Capua vulgana 25
Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 18
Common Wave (Cabera exanthemata) 13
Orange Footman (Eilema sororcula) 13

Click on images for larger versions.


Ancylis mitterbacheriana


Denisia similella


Shoulder-striped Wainscot


Green Silver-lines


Pale Tussock - many were of this darker form.


Lesser Swallow Prominent


Coxcomb Prominent

From the garden trap - 31/05/2008

Back home and out came the garden traps. Pretty good overall, with a garden tick being the highlight.

Total catch 140 of 34sp.
(125W MV 81 of 27sp., 80W actinic 59 of 20sp.)

First for the garden:
Bactra lancealana 1
First for the year:
Paraswammerdamia nebulella 1
Timothy Tortrix (Aphelia paleana) 1
Celypha striana 1
Celypha lacunana 4
Bee Moth (Aphomia sociella) 1
Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe ferrugata) 1
Lime-speck Pug (Eupithecia centaureata) 1
Grey Pug (Eupithecia subfuscata) 2
Green Pug (Pasiphila rectangulata) 6
Large Nutmeg (Apamea anceps) 1
Marbled Minor agg. (Oligia strigilis agg.) 1
Highest counts:
Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 28
Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) 14
Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 13
Mottled Pug (Eupithecia exiguata) 11
Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) 10

I should point out that there are a few species groups which are not reliably separable from each other unless a genitalia determination is carried out. Sacrificing every individual for the sake of recording is a non-starter, so these are listed as aggregate species. The three main groups as far as my garden goes are Marbled/Tawny Marbled/Rufous Minors, Dark/Grey Dagger and Common/Lesser Common Rustic.

The garden total for May 2008 was 617 of 87sp. from 16 nights trapping.

As ever - click on images for bigger versions.


Bactra lancealana - garden tick!


Lime-speck Pug


Bee Moth


Green Pug


Freyer's Pug


Bright-line Brown-eye

Hospital

We ended up driving down to Devon a lot earlier than planned as Alex had a bit of a relapse of the atypical asthma he had when he was a toddler - this time brought on (it appears) by pneumonia. He was in hospital on Wednesday and Thursday night, and was discharged late on Friday afternoon so we didn't drive home until yesterday. He's right as rain now though and you'd never know he'd been ill - back to his usual loony, bouncy, shouty self. Such is my faith in hospital cleanliness, I am hoping we are all clear of C.diff and MRSA aswell!