From the garden trap - 04/04/2008

Cold rain just after midnight almost made me pack the traps up, but seeing as I really couldn't be arsed I left them out with low expectations for emptying this morning. The MV was crap but the actinic did surprisingly well. I should mention that the two traps operate out of direct line of sight from each other, but nevertheless it's a only a modest garden so they are no more than 10M apart. I think that on some nights when the conditions are not favourable, moths will tend to get pushed through the garden one way or the other, so one of the traps picks up disproportionately more individuals. On fairly good nights both traps tend to perform as well as each other though some species clearly prefer the actinic light. Total catch 27 of 7sp (80W actinic 21 of 6sp, 125W MV 6 of 4sp) Emmelina monodactyla 1 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 4 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 1 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 8 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 4 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 6 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 3 For anyone not aware of the generally accepted convention, the date given for the catch is the date that the trap was set (ie the evening) rather than the morning when it was emptied. I've also noted comments on a couple of other blogs about moths being found outside and around rather than in the traps. For some species this is almost the norm - Early Grey and Grey Shoulder-knot are good examples where you are as likely, perhaps more so, to find them on a wall or fence some way from the trap as in it. I always make a point of checking under and around the trap, in adjacent bushes and on fences before I open up the trap to empty.