Wha'ppen?

Where the hell did the time go? Feels like I've been cheated, short changed or robbed. I've barely posted bugger all this year, and it appears nothing since early June. But, for a change, that's not because there was nothing to post about. But between bouts of activity I've been pretty busy and work and, you know, stuff. I'll have a bit of catch up one way or another, though not chronologically (or indeed following any logic). For a starter, here's a few new for garden moths and one or two highlights that haven't been posted.

Black Arches - new for garden, 29/07/2023

Bordered Straw - 27/07/2023, third garden record

Bordered White - 12/06/2023, the first here since 2002

Box-tree Moth - 30/06/2023, surprisingly the first here since adding it to the VC55 list in 2017

Crescent - 27/07/2023, fifth garden record

Dewick's Plusia - 28/07/2023, a return after adding to garden list last year

Obscure Wainscot - 12/06/2023, another return after adding to garden list last year

Small Elephant Hawk-moth - new for garden, 24/06/2023

Small Rufous - 27/07/2023, fourth garden record

Toadflax Brocade - 19/07/2023, recorded for fourth consecutive year here

Apotomis lineana - new for both garden and me, 09/08/2023

Lesser Treble-bar - new for garden, 15/08/2023

White-point - an overdue new for garden, 20/08/2023

Charnwood Lodge - Traptastic

After a fair bit of effort last night, me and Adrian had managed to deploy no less than 16 traps between us running of 5 gennies, plus a light over a sheet on the small Honda. This morning we made a start at 5ish, which was a good 45 minutes or so after dawn but there you go. This heralded four and a half hours of collating traps, reeling in cables, collecting gennies and emptrying traps. Lots of filled pots with stuff to check and photograph, lots of bytes of digital dictation of trap contents, and of course the obligatory coffe and bacon sarnies to smooth the process. It's going to take a while to get the list sorted, IDs checked and photography finished.

In the meantime, here's some trap-porn! Phwoar - look at the filaments on that .....

16 traps x c10mins emptying = c2 hours and 40 minutes of anticipation

The MAD trap - 160W blended, 20W CFL actinic, 11W standard CFL

The CFL actinic delux - 5 x 20W (except 1 didn't work)

A 125W clear MV - more UV, less eye protection ...

The 11W Synergetic (new dual-peak green actinic) on a debut outing

The 250W metal halide, with the 80W/100W actinic/tungsten combo in the background

A 22W actinic ring with tungsten filling

This is en entirely natural occurrence, and in no way contrived. The two elephants often meet up on Rhododendron ...

Charnwood Lodge 20/05/2011 Pt 2 - List and More Pics

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

After transcibing and integrating our lists, the overall catch from our Chanrwood Lodge jaunt turned out to be a very respectable species total including many new for the year. It was cool and clear with a bit of a breeze, but stayed dry throughout. We ran a 125W MV light over a sheet for a short while inbetween setting up the traps and topping up the gennies for the night before heading home for some kip, returning just after dawn to empty the 12 traps (8 x 125W MV, 2 x 250W MV, 1 x 250W metal halide and 1 x actinic/tungsten combo).

The total catch was 494 of 74 species. Here's a full listing ...

0017 Common Swift (Hepialus lupulinus) 6
0130 Incurvaria masculella 1
0140 Nematopogon swammerdamella 10
0150 Adela reaumurella 4
0227 Skin Moth (Monopis laevigella) 4
0409a Argyresthia trifasciata 1
0418 Apple Fruit Moth (Argyresthia conjugella) 1 (NFY)
0602 Elachista apicipunctella 6
0636 Denisia similella 6 (NFY)
0770 Carpatolechia proximella 4
1007 Capua vulgana 16
1076 Celypha lacunana 2
1136 Epinotia immundana 1
1301 Crambus lathoniellus 2 (NFY)
1334 Scoparia ambigualis 43
1638 Fox Moth (Macrothylacia rubi) 1 (NFY)
1645 Scalloped Hook-tip (Falcaria lacertinaria) 1 (NFY)
1648 Pebble Hook-tip (Drepana falcataria) 1
1652 Peach Blossom (Thyatira batis) 1 (NFY)
1722 Flame Carpet (Xanthorhoe designata) 2
1725 Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe ferrugata) 1
1727 Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata) 1
1764 Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) 6
1768 Grey Pine Carpet (Thera obeliscata) 18 (NFY)
1776 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 11
1817 Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata) 3
1834 Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) 3
1835 White-spotted Pug (Eupithecia tripunctaria) 1
1837 Grey Pug (Eupithecia subfuscata) 2
1844 Ochreous Pug (Eupithecia indigata) 3 (NFY)
1856 Larch Pug (Eupithecia lariciata) 1 (NFY)
1857 Dwarf Pug (Eupithecia tantillaria) 2 (NFY)
1893 Tawny-barred Angle (Macaria liturata) 4
1902 Brown Silver-line (Petrophora chlorosata) 101
1904 Scorched Wing (Plagodis dolabraria) 6 (NFY)
1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 7
1920 Scalloped Hazel (Odontopera bidentata) 17
1931 Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) 2 (NFY)
1947 Engrailed (Ectropis bistortata) 1
1951 Grey Birch (Aethalura punctulata) 3 (NFY)
1956 Common Wave (Cabera exanthemata) 1
1957 White-pinion Spotted (Lomographa bimaculata) 3
1979 Lime Hawk-moth (Mimas tiliae) 3
1992 Small Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila porcellus) 8 (NFY)
2000 Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius) 6
2003 Pebble Prominent (Notodonta ziczac) 4
2006 Lesser Swallow Prominent (Pheosia gnoma) 3
2008 Coxcomb Prominent (Ptilodon capucina) 2 (NFY)
2011 Pale Prominent (Pterostoma palpina) 1
2014 Marbled Brown (Drymonia dodonaea) 16 (NFY)
2028 Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda) 24
2043 Orange Footman (Eilema sororcula) 14
2060 White Ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda) 10
2061 Buff Ermine (Spilosoma luteum) 13 (NFY)
2063 Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica) 1
2064 Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) 2
2069 Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) 6 (NFY)
2089 Heart and Dart (Agrotis exclamationis) 1
2098 Flame (Axylia putris) 1 (NFY)
2102 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) 9
2120 Ingrailed Clay (Diarsia mendica) 2 (NFY)
2147 Shears (Hada plebeja) 8 (NFY)
2158 Pale-shouldered Brocade (Lacanobia thalassina) 5 (NFY)
2163 Broom Moth (Melanchra pisi) 1 (NFY)
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 1
2205 Shoulder-striped Wainscot (Mythimna comma) 13 (NFY)
2289 Knot Grass (Acronicta rumicis) 1
2301 Bird's Wing (Dypterygia scabriuscula) 1 (NFY)
2302 Brown Rustic (Rusina ferruginea) 3
2305 Small Angle Shades (Euplexia lucipara) 1 (NFY)
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1
2326 Clouded-bordered Brindle(Apamea crenata ab. combusta) 1
2334 Rustic Shoulder-knot (Apamea sordens) 2
2422 Green Silver-lines (Pseudoips prasinana britannica) 20

Denisia similella

Flame Carpet - a much smarter individual than from Cossington Meadows a few weeks ago

Coxcomb Prominent

Orange Footman

Marbled Brown

Larch Pug - a bit knackered

Brown Silver-line

See the last post for Noctuid pics.