… and lots more besides. Spells of warm weather, of the likes we are having at present, offer the best opportunity for picking up new species in the garden and my trusty actinic hasn’t let me down. Having trapped every night since Saturday, I’ve so far recorded about 120 species. Of interest, I had 9 Swallow-tail Moths on 13th, 4 Orange Moth on 14th (still a scarce species here having only been recorded in 2006, 2010 and last year), a Cinnabar (the third garden record), Catoptria pinella (been getting 1 or 2 a year since 2008), Short-cloaked Moth (1 on 13th) and Barred Straw (every night so far with 3 on 15th). The highlight was going to be the Vitula biviella I caught on the 13th but that got trumped this morning when I turned over one of the egg-trays and found a Ruddy Carpet. Had I also managed to pot up the probable Beautiful Carpet that was fluttering around the trap on Saturday night it might have been a bit tighter to call but, alas, the albicillata will have to remain a maybe. Still .. I can’t complain
(As a postscript to the above, I ran the trap again that night and caught a single Blue-bordered Carpet. Another new site record and one of the few species I had caught at our old home in Thurston but not here.)