As others have reported, the moth season is now in full swing with some good catches here in the last week. Not had over 100sp yet but up in the eighties. Have moved the traps around a bit too, trying not only the garden and the usual spot around the worksheds on the course but also ran lights in some Alder carr woodland for a bit more variety. Catches dominated by 3 species – Treble lines (137 caught on the 22nd highest count), Orange footman (50 highest number, again on 22nd) and Coleophora albicosta (no surprise there really being a heathland site with loads of Gorse). More interesting species for me have included: Buttoned snout (2 caught in the Alder carr wood, not often caught at light here but breeds on site on the abundant Hops), Grey birch, Seraphim (a few each time), Satin wave, May highflyer (15 seen in the Alder wood), Coronet (2), Brindled white spot (a few), Incurvaria oehlmanniella, Clay triple-lines (2 on 20th, only seen it a few times here before), Light brocade (regularly about 5 seen each night), Figure of eighty, Epinotia rubiginosana, Argyresthia glabratella (2nd site record 20th), Puss moth (not seen every year here so a good one for me, found about 5 metres away from the actinic trap, often they are found a distance away from the trap), Cydia conicolana and C.cosmophorana, Cochylis nana, Alder moth and Pammene obscurana (3rd site record). Following on from Raymond’s late Pine beauty sighting, I caught a fresh one on the 22nd, not my latest ever as I’ve had one in June before.
Nice to see good numbers of moths about again following on from the good summer we had last year. Let’s hope this recovery continues.
Neil