Goodbye Andy, Goodbye Alan

As I am sure long-time visitors to this blog will be aware, for over 40 years I've been listening to and thoroughly enjoying the works of Depeche Mode. During that that time, their line up has been more stable than any other band of similar longevity that I can think of. Vince Clarke left very early on, Alan Wilder replaced him for 13 years and from then on the band has been the three ever-present core of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher. They've had a consistent touring members Christian Eigner on drums since 1997 and Peter Gordeno on keyboards since 1998. Today, far too young, Andy Fletcher (60) died. Andy was pivotal to the success of the band: not as a songwriter, not as the voice or the face of the band, but he certainly was the glue and the heart of the band keeping things together through inevitable rough patches. Whilst I sincerely hope that this is not the end for Depeche Mode, it will be in many respects.

It was even longer ago that I heard and liked Yes, albeit thanks to my Dad playing them incessantly. I've not listened to them regularly over that time or kept pace with everything they've released, and their line up is far from stable or consistent. But one of their most persistent members was drummer Alan White - ever-present from 1972. Alan (72) also died today.

Here's a few suitably sombre looking moths from the garden last night ....

Clouded Brindle

Flame Shoulder

Vine's Rustic

Marbled Minor sl

Tawny Marbled Minor sl

Something Good

It's been a great weekend weather-wise, with a good few insects finding their way onto my square list.

I stuck out a pheromone lure in the garden yesterday afternoon (MOL lure for Grapholita molesta). I was hoping that one of the Pammene sp. that are coming to this lure would turn up, more in vain hope than expectation, but literally within a minute of putting it out a small moth was flittering about the trap before going in. I secured it in a pot and was pretty sure it was Pammene suspectana, with rapid confirmation from a FB posting. There are no previous VC55 records, although I've since picked up that Keith Tailby had a few to a lure on Friday. I'll get it gen detted to support the record, but I have no doubts personally. The weird thing about this though is that it turned up very quickly, but I left the lure out and in the subsequent 24hrs it attracted one aphid.

The garden trap has also livened up a bit, although overall numbers are still low. There have been a few NFY species over the last three nights including these:

Campion

Sandy Carpet

Shuttle-shaped Dart

Pale Tussock

Flame Shoulder

Today I grabbed a couple of hours in the square sweeping and swiping my nets. I've ended up with a fair few pots to work through, and I grabbed some very quick photos of a couple of beetles, with the first being a tick ....

Plateumaris sericea

Anthonomus pedicularius

Hylesinus varius

And always good to see a few of these whilst out and about ....

Swollen-thighed Beetle

Bits from the Bog

Yesterday I nipped back over to Narborough Bog for a couple of hours in the morning before heading to the LCFC game in the afternoon. Armed with a bit more info, I was intent on properly sorting out the Phyllocnistis saligna mines and I think I was successful, but I'll save that for another day.

Whilst there I pointed the camera at a few bits, but with variable cloud cover and brief sunny spells, coupled with intense wind, it was all a bit hit and miss. Luckily I managed a hit with what has turned out to be a new sawfly for me ...

Athalia rosae

I also found some funky small beetles on umbelifers, that I have seen before but not in Leics. ...

Anthocomus rufus

And the docks were busy with both adults and nymphs of the aptly named bug ...

Dock Bug

Whilst looking for leafmines, I had another look for Bedelia somnulentella and found quite a few more mines than on Wednesday, but better than that I found a couple of adults loitering around on the underside of bindweed leaves.

Bedelia somnulentella

The garden moth trap was out last night for the first time in over a week, and the catch was fairly brown and grey. Not much excitement or colour at this time of year, though it will pick up again in a week or two.

Square-spot Rustic

Vine's Rustic

Small Square-spot

Flame Shoulder

Pale Eggar

Warren Hills 17/08/2011

Time to catch up on some mothing action. Last Wednesday in less than ideal conditions, I cajoled Adrian into a quick effort at Warren Hills targeting Heath Rustic and Annulet. Warren Hills is part of the Charnwood Lodge reserve, and holds possibly the best area of heather in VC55 (though there is not that much of it). It was good to see the heather in full bloom, and there appeared to be a notable spread since a grazing policy in recent years.

Click for bigger

No success with either of the target scarce site specialities, but we managed a respectable 346 of 51sp in 2.5hrs. We ran a 125W MV light over a sheet, a 125W MV trap, a 22W/18W Synergetic/CFL combo and a 40W/20W CFL Actinic/CFL combo. Here's the full list:

0015 Orange Swift (Hepialus sylvina) 2
0018 Map-winged Swift (Hepialus fusconebulosa) 1
0464 Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella) 1
0873 Blastobasis adustella 3
0954 Eupoecilia angustana f. fasciella 3 (NFY subspecies)
0987 Ptycholomoides aeriferanus 1
1093 Apotomis betuletana 2 (NFY)
1134 Epinotia ramella 1 (NFY)
1260 Cydia splendana 2
1304 Agriphila straminella 8
1305 Agriphila tristella 4
1340 Eudonia truncicolella 5 (NFY)
1342 Eudonia angustea 1 (NFY)
1344 Eudonia mercurella 1
1702 Small Fan-footed Wave (Idaea biselata) 3
1713 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata) 1
1738 Common Carpet (Epirrhoe alternata) 1
1740 Galium Carpet (Epirrhoe galiata) 1
1756 Northern Spinach (Eulithis populata) 10
1757 Spinach (Eulithis mellinata) 4 (NFY)
1831 Ling Pug (Eupithecia absinthiata f. goossensiata) 1 (NFY subspecies)
1846 Narrow-winged Pug (Eupithecia nanata) 5 (NFY)
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
1914 Dusky Thorn (Ennomos fuscantaria) 1 (NFY)
1937 Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) 1
2000 Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius) 1
2006 Lesser Swallow Prominent (Pheosia gnoma) 1
2047 Scarce Footman (Eilema complana) 5
2050 Common Footman (Eilema lurideola) 1
2092 Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) 3
2102 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) 14
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 7
2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 4
2110 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua fimbriata) 2
2111 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua janthe) 35
2118 True Lover's Knot (Lycophotia porphyrea) 8
2126 Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum) 11
2130 Dotted Clay (Xestia baja) 10 (NFY)
2133 Six-striped Rustic (Xestia sexstrigata) 6
2134 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) 7
2145 Nutmeg (Discestra trifolii) 1
2176 Antler Moth (Cerapteryx graminis) 149
2177 Hedge Rustic (Tholera cespitis) 1 (NFY)
2198 Smoky Wainscot (Mythimna impura) 1
2254 Grey Chi (Antitype chi) 2 (NFY)
2293 Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica) 1
2297 Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) 1
2321 Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha) 3
2342 Rosy Minor (Mesoligia literosa) 2 (NFY)
2343x Common Rustic agg. (Mesapamea secalis agg.) 3
2350 Small Wainscot (Chortodes pygmina) 3 (NFY)

Narrow-winged Pug

True Lover's Knot

Galium Carpet

Dotted Clay

'Ling Pug'

Grey Chi

Hedge Rustic

Flame Shoulder - a really smart individual

Eudonia truncicolella - all in various states of wear and disrepair

The Moth Pics Pt 2

Some more from Charnwood Lodge .....

Red-necked Footman - smart

Northern Spinach - ridiculously early?

Beautiful Carpet - certainly is

Broom Moth - a realy smart individual

Marbled White Spot - could this be referable to f. albilinea?

Marbled White Spot - a typical individual

Small Angle Shades

Grey Pine Carpet

... and more from the garden on 02/06/2011

Common Carpet

Angle Shades

Flame Shoulder

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: