Almost 20 degrees at IGC yesterday, and with it still being about 13 degrees at dusk it was always going to be a great night for moths. The 2 traps put out absolutely covered in moths this morning, could well have been my best ever February night (but not checked back yet to see). 13sp, 586 moths! Some very high counts of certain species:
T.alternella – 232
Pale brindled beauty – 70
March moth – 40
Dotted border – 33
Small brindled beauty – 39
Spring usher – 30
Most interesting moths were singles of Acleris logiana and Agonopterix ciliella. First Small quaker too.
I think that the warm spring last year has helped boost numbers this year, there certainly seemed to be good numbers of caterpillars of some of the above mentioned species around when I did some beating.
There could possibly be some more mild nights next week, be interesting to see if more species start coming out.
Neil
Hi Neil, I’ve been looking at my identification of A. heracliana vs ciliella and concluded that the UKMoths difference on counting the lines in the cilia is inadequate but perhaps size is a guide. Do you have any tips? Do you have any photos of male A. ciliella genitalia?
Hello Raymond. Size is a bit of a difference, ciliella is normally larger, and I think in general colour it is more rusty red. I find that the lines on the cillia of the hindwing is a good indication if they are intact. I don’t have a picture of the genitalia as Jon Clifton dissected my records. He probably has one if you want to see one.
Hope this helps
Neil
I agree with your comment about numbers Neil. Never had so many spring species in the traps before. On 3 nights in the past 7 days I’ve had between 80 & 100 moths each night and this in just 2 hours trapping and especially T. alternella with at least 180 in the past 7 days, (last night I counted 60 and gave up).
Brian