After all the gloom and doom regarding our moths in 2016 both out in the field and here at my home trapping area 2017 turned out to be completely different. In fact it was a record breaking year for me here with 842 species noted (19 new site records in this total), beating my previous highest by almost 100 species. This is quite a major improvement compared to the species total in 2016 which was 689 species.
I’ll never know for sure why this was but there are a few things that probably helped. There was a cold spell over the winter (in January), something I think is vital for the overwintering stages of moths. There were good warm spells especially in June and early July which always helps with getting better catches. Mild spells in the autumn too, good for migrants and also second generations of earlier summer moths as well as some of the immigrant species that arrived earlier and bred. It wasn’t all good however with September being a month that sticks in the mind as being very poor due to cool weather, meaning that a few regular species didn’t make an appearance here this year – Heath rustic, Bulrush wainscot and Webb’s wainscot being examples.
Having already heard from another Suffolk recorder that it was their second best ever year for species, how was it for others?
Neil
Yes I also had my best year since I began recording in 2009. Previous best was 2013 when my total species for the year was 709 (in 2016 it was 653). This year it looks like being around 780 although I have not quite completed my records. The reason for the big boost for me was that Stewart Wright kindly accompanied me on a mine search on my Aldeby site which added 57 new species to the site record and swelled my year total by a similar amount. So my total for the year is different to Neil’s in that it is across 21 different sites including those species added to my year’s list on visits to SMG events, NMG events and records from 3 visits to other parts of the country when on holiday. Whereas Neil’s total is from one site, illustrating what an excellent site it is.
A quick count of the nights I ran traps during the year is around 152 including the garden – usually one trap, but out on my regular sites it is usually 4 or 5 in the summer months.
I have not yet arrived at the grand total of moths counted over the 12 months, but it looks to be well in excess is the 15,200 total from 2016.
Brian
A little better than 2016 at home. 766 species with 32 new as compared to 752 species and 38 new for 2016. It didn’t feel so good though. Possibly because of several valued local species that didn’t turn up.
It would be very false for me to add up across all the sites I visit though as that would be very high owing to the variety of habitats I visit. The most interesting one this year has been local to me, The Patch. One of the moth highlights there has been that Catoptria verellus has a breeding population. Some of you will know I also study Caddis-flies and it has turned up one that was only previously caught in Suffolk in 1912 and may not currently have any other known UK site.
Just to clarify why I included all my records in my reply.
Total species for my garden for 2017 was 267 which was slightly down on 2016 even though I added 6 new ones to the list. As I have mentioned before, if I was to trap solely in the garden, my year list would not be very long. Also, I think the reason my list of garden species is getting shorter is because as new neighbours move in, they are removing trees and plants even grass to make life easier for themselves. Some species I used to record regularly just do not turn up any more.
So if I was to base how good or bad my year was on just my garden record it would not give a true picture. But the evidence from all the ‘away from home’ sites I trap regularly was that 2017 was an exceptionally good year.
Brian