2020 Garden Mothing

I've managed to get all of my summer and autumn dictaphone lists transcribed and entered into Mapmate. It wasn't too arduous, which probably tells the story in itself.

Whilst 2020 has had some excellent periods of hot sunny weather by day, giving good opportunities for invert recording when out and about, there have been relatively few periods of excellent overnight conditions suitable for big moth trap totals. Excessively windy and/or wet weather have scuppered some of the peak periods, and days when the temps are soaring followed by clear nights with a significant temperature drop are not great either. Then with one thing or another, I stopped trapping before some of the autumnal species were out and about. So I already knew that the 2020 species total was going to be on the low side.

I've never bothered to run a trap every night regardless, as some do. Whilst this would indeed be a consistent approach my (usual) work life means that getting up early every morning is too much. I will try and run it consecutively for several nights when conditions (or my enthusiasm and working pattern) make it worthwhile, but more usually I will run for a few nights, miss a couple and start again. There is still enough trapping to make some sort of year to year comparison valid, until - like this year - there are big gaps between trap dates or a late start / early end to the trapping effort.

Before the first national lockdown, we'd had some pretty wet and crappy weather. The garden was waterlogged for most of the time until mid-March, and so aside from a couple of nights trapping didn't really start until the back end of the month. For most of the year I've just run a single trap, alternating between a synergetic/actinic combo and a 125W MV. I knocked up a quick summary of traps dates and type because I have nothing else pressing to do ....

Green blocks are the synergetic/actinic trap (59 nights), blue blocks are the MV trap (16 nights) and black blocks are the seven nights when I ran both together. So trapping results from 82 nights in total, with 89 'trap-nights'. By far the biggest impact on overall numbers recorded are the big gaps between 27th June - 9th July, 18th - 28th July and 15th August - 31st August with little or no trapping. These are primarily due to weather (or weather-related apathy!). No trapping after 21st September will have knocked fewer species from the total.

Aside from trapping, there are a few records of individuals dayflying, attracted to lit windows or an external light fitting, and a couple of larval records. In total, I've recorded 319 species in 2020 - way down on the 425 species in 2013, but actually only around 30 species down on the average of the last ten years. There is a slim chance of one or two more species for the year, I'll update this post if that happens.

There were seven new species in the year, and I managed to point the camera at all but one - an Ypsolopha horridella on 9th August which flew off from the egg box whilst I fumbled for a pot.

Luffia lapidella f. ferchaultella (26/04/2020)

A surprise find on a low wall in the garden

Spuleria flavicaput (21/05/2020)

One I'd not seen anywhere before - and sadly it was knackered!

Gillmeria ochrodactyla (02/06/2020)

Another full British tick

Brown-tail (24/06/2020)

Maybe not a surprise, although this was still a VC55 rarity not that long ago

Cydia fagiglandana (25/06/2020)

I've recorded this not too far away at Narborough Bog in the past, but it's not like we have an abundance of beech around here 

Toadflax Brocade (12/08/2020)

Another British tick, and one I was hoping would turn up after arriving in the VC a couple of years ago

The garden list is up to 705 species. 2021 will definitely see some disruption in the early spring if the garden works go ahead as planned, but I hope we get a better run of trapping between June and late August at least. I also hope that I'll be able to trap in the later autumn again having missed a few species both this and last year.

Omission

The garden traps have not been too lively of late, and aside from a paucity of moths there has been no bycatch of note. This morning there was a small red/yellow Cantharid. I have to be completely honest, I am a bit apathetic when it comes to Cantharids; after the first few of the season I start to ignore them. This is not a very successful approach for adding Cantharids to my list. Anyway, as there was nothing else to look at I decided to pot it and check it out later. That was already a step further than my heart was prepared to take, so making any effort to photograph it properly was not an option ......

Here it is on a white plastic card with flash. Red legs with black 'knees', red pronotum and head, yellow elytra, c8mm and - crucially - with no dark tips to the palps. Cantharis cryptica it is.

I then thought to check, seeing as I'd put together a garden beetle list. And then realised my Cantharid apathy has probably lead to a few omissions. C. cryptica is new for the garden (but I'm sure it's not) and earlier this year I had a moth-trap puzzler which I resolved in the end to Cantharis rufa - which also needs adding and almost certainly isn't the first. I guess I'm going to have to make a lot more effort with Cantharids in the moth trap!

Otherwise, last week I had what I am sure is a new moth for me and the garden. In fact I'm certain, but it's just the lack of an overwhelming affirmation when I've posted it online that is making me hold on to it for a formal det. I'm confident enough to add it to my lists in the meantime, and I do not expect to get the rubber out.

Brown bands on the hindlegs, no clear dark 'triangle' on forewing.

I'm sure this is Gillmeria ochrodactyla.

Not much else happening at the moment. We've had a load of new fence panels down one side and at the back, so we're in the process of painting those and re-painting existing panels over a few days. That might help to mask the mish-mash of panels we've ended up with: there are five other gardens around our fenceline. We usually paint them a dark brown but fancied a change. I wanted black to strongly contrast with foliage and flowers, Nichola wanted grey. We're painting them grey. Although to be fair it's quite a dark grey so I think they will still contrast nicely with foliage and flowers. I'm not sure how well moths will show up on the fence though.

We're starting to plan out how we're going to restructure the garden. We need improved drainage, a new patio, a new lawn and the shed is knackered. So apart from a birch tree everything else will be stripped out and start again. The garden will be split up a little: about 70% will be patio / lawn area with the usual contemporary planting and BBQ area etc, 10% will be taken up by a new bigger shed / workshop and the bottom end of the garden will be used to try and create something more wildlife friendly.

Meanwhile, anyone deploring the pulling down of a statue needs to give their head a wobble and ask why the fuck it was still there to be pulled down.