With leaves starting to tumble down in quantities on the site this week, the moths too have started to take on more of an autumnal flavour (at last!). Species noted for the first time for the season have included Brindled green, Autumnal rustic, Large ranunculus (only a wing found, the remains of a bat’s dinner!), Sallow, Barred sallow, Brick and Blair’s shoulder knot. Most of these species appeared last night in the warm conditions. A Chestnut has also been seen on a small patch of flowering Ivy out on the course, the first since the spring. I’m trying to find a decent area of Ivy locally to look at but nothing has been as good as the much missed clump near my garden that was destroyed in St Jude’s storm last year.
There are still a few species appearing that I wouldn’t expect, either late emergers or second brood moths. These have included Kent black arches, Rosy footman, Clepsis consimilana and Acrobasis consociella. A single Lunar yellow underwing has also been caught.
Some of my regular species that I would normally expect have yet to be caught this year – Black rustic, Deep-brown dart and Heath rustic are examples.This could be because I can’t run traps around the workshed area at present due to work going on there, this is where I would expect to catch better numbers of these compared to the garden. Even so, I still would expect to get them in lower numbers there.Nice to finally open a trap and find some colourful moths in there compared to the brown jobs that I’ve seemingly been getting for a long time now!
Neil