April mothing at Purdis.

With poor weather forecast for the last few days of the month its time to reflect on April mothing here. Start of the month ok, then a poor spell, followed by a brief blast of summer heat then ending on a damp cold last week with poor numbers of moths.
Best 2 nights for me were the 6th, with 22sp (290 moths) in 2 traps and 21st with 25sp in one trap running up in the woods.
Orthosia numbers around average here this year I would say. No lead-coloured drab this year but did get 4 records of Powdered quaker which is good for me. Brindled beauty had its best year here, with regular sightings. Also good for Diurnea fagella after a poor season in 2017. Dotted chestnut appeared 4 times (5 moths), again seemingly doing well. Other sightings of possible note: Pale pinion (6th), Agonopterix scopariella, Water carpet (regular from mid month), Shoulder stripe (21st, very rare at this site), Plutella xylostella (22nd, first for year) and Caloptilia hemidactylella (21st). The warm spell prompted big emergences of some species of moths, examples being Frosted green with 31 seen on the 19th (in one trap) along with 37 Lunar marbled brown the same night (my highest ever total). Some of the prominent moths started around this time too with Swallow, Lesser swallow and Great appearing so far. The late spring meant that some of the earlier species were still hanging on, with Yellow horned seen up until the 6th and Oak beauty seen until the 19th (my latest ever record).
Daytime observations were possibly of more interest. Had Pammene giganteana on the 4th, Early tooth-striped on the 8th (by security light). Found Heliozela sericiella and Acrolepia autumnitella on 20th, both in my greenhouse. On the 22nd, found a freshly emerged Mullein moth in one of my flowerbeds, close to some of the foodplant, not a moth I’ve seen too often here, although the larvae are obvious and seen in numbers every year. Then in the last week had an early Foxglove pug on 23rd and Pammene argyrana plus a Puss moth (at rest in long grass, freshy emerged) on the 27th.
Hopefully things will improve next month if it stops raining!

Neil

Pammene giganteana

Pammene giganteana

Water carpet

Water carpet

Powdered quaker

Powdered quaker

Caloptilia hemidactylella

Caloptilia hemidactylella

 

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