Suffolk Moths Blog

Last night I revisited Nebb Carr at Blundeston, the previous visit in early May produced 8 moth species on a cool night that finished early.

Opening the truck door on arrival I was greeted by the high pitched hum of midges. A large fox, silhouetted, sitting upright on top of the steep hillside,  northwest of my location, watched me unload the equipment.To start Nascia cilialis was one of the first moths to come in at my seat trap. I decided to do trap rounds after lights on for 20 minutes to try and keep on top of what might happen on this perfect night. I spent the whole night visiting the traps and taking back specimens needing id to the seat trap. Some very good moths recorded amongst the 92 species to the four lights including the 3 Alder Kitten. 3 Four-dotted Footman 6 Shoulder-striped Wainscot, Alder & Lobster Moth, Shark, Red-green Carpet! Figure of Eighty, Round-winged Muslin, lots of Elephant Hawk-moth, Oak Hook-tip, Single dotted wave, Small Clouded Brindle, D forficella amongst the catch,  and to finish a Gold Spot. An interesting looking Cydia sp, a bit worn, has been retained to determine its identity at a later date. High numbers of moths overall.

Also of interest a Hobby at 22.15 along the marsh/ carr edge. A glow worm male hitched a lift home.

It looks like some moths were on the move last night as my trap had some infrequent visitors to the garden. Not having much woodland nearby Orange Footman is a bit of an unusual visitor but I had two last night.  A female Ghost and a Green Carpet, which from memory I think the Ghost is a first for the garden while the Green Carpet is only the second.

Also of note was a single Gem and I have just heard from Martin Hough in Grundisburgh that he has had one as well.

Tony

The (? Black) Poplar that stood just outside the Council Offices in Corks Lane, Hadleigh didn’t fair too well during last months spell of very windy weather … and was subsequently cut up and taken away … but the stump continues to deliver the goods. At lunchtime today I found six fresh Hornet Moth exuvial cases pocking out of the stump at ground level.

Ran 2 traps last night, first time this month, mainly due to a lack of enthusiasm in the first week because of the poor weather and I was on holiday last week. Nice to see an improvement, with more moths and species caught. 42sp seen, nothing too spectacular but nice to see Small elephant, Green silver lines, Ochreous pug. Also disturbed quite a few moths during the day today whilst working as well, a good sign that numbers are getting going. Saw a number of Crambus lathoniellus (50+), Large yellow underwing (first for year), Lychnis and 3 Silver Y.

With some more warm nights forecast this week hopefully things can only get better.

Neil

Tuesday 11th was the first warmer night for a while with an humid southerly wind. Matthew Deans and I have permission to trap on a small local RSPB reserve, Hollesley marshes which includes coastal saltmarsh, drained wet meadow, old osier beds and reed beds. 11th June was our first expedition with 3 MV Robinson traps. We also trapped at our regular sites, I in my garden and Matthew at Bawdsey Hall.
The RSPB site produced 57 species which includes two larval IDs. Species were typical of the location and included a number of Monopis weaverella, a Flame Wainscot and two fresh Cream-spot Tigers.
My garden MV trap in a sheltered location provided 54 species but with very few moths in the more exposed traps so a final total of 61 species. A few first timers for the year include a Burnished Brass and Sallow Kitten. Two micros new to my site list were Nematopogon schwarziellus and the rather pretty Stigmella roborella.

It having been such a poor start to the year, I’ve hardly bothered trapping in the garden so … to get my moth fix … I’ve been out and about looking for micro’s. Starting at home, I was really pleased to find an adult Phyll’ leucographella at the w/end, having already recorded the larval workings on our pyracantha last year. And a very smart moth it is too

Yesterday, we were told not to turn up for work too early (something to do with lack of power and no PCs until lunchtime) so it seemed like the perfect excuse to spend a pleasant few hours wandering around Groton Woods. Found plenty (100+) of Micropterix calthella on the buttercups and, with a bit of perseverance, I also found singles of M. aruncella and Adela fibulella. Today, along the Riverside Walk at Hadleigh, I saw more calthella, another aruncella and my first G.simpliciella (Cocksfoot Moths) of the year.

(PS. Photo’s uploaded to the website)

A warm, cloudy night (11th June) at last and I woke this morning to a full trap. Small Elephant Hawk-moth just beat Elephant Hawk-moth 7-6 and other species of interest included Cream-bordered Green Pea, Least Black Arches, Pale Oak Beauty, Marbled Brown and Pale Tussock. 36 species in total with Green Carpet still the commonest moth.

We have 2 Juniper bushes in our garden and a search of these at lunchtime revealed a late larva of Juniper Pug and several pupae presumably of the same species. This is a new site record as I haven’t attracted any to light.

Mark

Finally the north easterlies have died down and we are promised warmer weather here on the east coast. 9th June gave me 47 species. Crambus lathoniellus is about and am taking Common Pug and Freyer’s Pug at present. An Alder Moth, which I rate, and also a White Colon. The new micro to my list was Cnephasia communana. A pleasing catch as it puts the Sandlings on a par with the Breckland for the occurrence of this species. It was the first Cnephasia of the year and didn’t strike me as either of the expected asseclana or stephensiana so a dissection was called for.

Back at this site at St Olaves last night after a cool ,cloudy, dull, breezy day. I had no expectations regarding a catch for this night and could easily have turned back home on arrival after a brief inspection of the marshes, where I wanted to focus my trapping, which were quite exposed and not sheltered as I’d been hoping. Conditions were breezy, cloudy and around 11c, just a little lower than the daytime temperature. The woods were pretty still though, where Brian set up, so we stayed. One or two of the exposed marsh traps did little or nothing but a couple did ok with one doing particularly well late on in the night. At a couple of the woodland traps moths were in typical number for the time of season which was very nice to see. Among the macros were Alder Moth, Flame Wainscot, Light Emerald, Peppered, Lychnis, Birch Mocha, Purple-bar, Common-marbled Carpet, Ochreous Pug. Moths in large numbers were, Common White Wave, Orange Footman, May High-flyer, Brown Silver-lines, Scorched Wing, Green Carpet. The best moths were in the micros, though, with 16 species recorded including Clepsis spectrana, N. swammerdamamella, N. schwarziellus, Ancylis mitterbacheriana, Argyresthia conjugella. Nascia cilialis was the second best record to Lampronia fuscatella. In total, 72 species on the night.