Suffolk Moths Blog

My 12 species count for last night has an addition- CYPRESS CARPET, found on the outside corner of one of my Skinner traps at 1 pm today. And at 3.30 putting the other trap away a Pale-lemon Sallow !

Migrants were the highlights of the 2nd with 2 Dark Sword-grass, 1 Rusty-dot Pearl and 4 Silver Y taken at the two traps, along with a Red Underwing, numerous Sallows inc. Pink Barred and Barred. a late Orthopygia glaucinalis was a surprise catch amongst the 32 species.

On the 3rd singles of Dusky-lemon Sallow,  Gold-spot, Dark Swordgrass, 2 Silver Y,  2 Red-green Carpet and 2 Meurville du Jour were my pick of the 32 species recorded along with , White-point, Copper Underwing, 7 Angle Shades and  2 Mallow

The night of the 4th concludes this spell of 6 consecutive nights trapping with no mentionables and just 12 species. Time to put the traps back under cover until better conditions return !

Singles of Silver Y, Dark sword grass and Udea ferrugalis in my trap this morning. Other things of interest included unseasonal sightings of Webb’s wainscot (2) and Garden carpet. Also Flounced chestnut (2), Mallow, Merveille du jour, Red-green carpet (3).

A small but steady stream of autumnal moths here during the past week but nothing out of the ordinary. After a run of Large Wainscot’s, there were none in the trap last night but I did catch my first Merveille du Jour and Yellow-line Quaker of the year, together with the 2nd Pink-barred Sallow for garden. The plume acanthadactyla trapped a few nights ago.

Single Udea ferrugalis in one of my traps, the only migrant present! Other things of note included 4 Merveille du Jour, 2 Red-green carpet, Black rustic, 2 Streak, along with out of season Scoparia ambigualis, Agriphila inquinatella and Aroga velocella.

Lesser earwig also trapped for those interested in other orders apart from Leps.

Saw another Hummingbird hawk moth at IGC at lunchtime today, my second for the year. This time the moth wasn’t in my garden but was feeding on Verbena planted in the flowerbed around our work-sheds. I had actually planted it there a few years ago to hopefully attract this moth and now it has succeeded! If you want to see this moth I would recommend planting Verbena, it does seem to draw them in.

This was last nights highlight one of 26 Large Wainscot taken to 2 MV, other mentionables were 2 Merveille du Jour, Red Underwing, 2 White-point, 2 Dark Arches, Mallow makes up the numbers every night typically 2-4 nightly. Autumnal Rustic was also taken,  uncommon here. The second night for Red Admiral singles but they roost in conifers and I think the light is drawing them out rather than they are flying around in the dark. The only migrant was 1 Dark Sword-grass.

The best moths of the 29th were Feathered Ranunculus which was new for me, Pink-barred Sallow, 5 Black Rustic ,Frosted Orange, Dioryctria abietella, Dark Arches, White-point.
Best of the 30th clearly 2 L-album Wainscot, new to me. I’ve been looking out for the species for the last couple of Years, 2 Dusky-lemon Sallow, 3 Silver Y, 14 Large Wainscot. I wonder what tonight might bring!

A few things of interest seen last night: Large ranunculus, L-Album wainscot (6), Pink-barred sallow (2) and Deep-brown dart. With warm weather forecast hopefully more notable moths will arrive.