Suffolk Moths Blog

Having spent Saturday night and what seemed like a chunk of Sunday morning trapping with the group in the Brecks (of which more to follow I suspect) I arrived home to what on the face of it appeared to be a comparatively empty garden trap, with one exception – a lone Silver Y sitting on the top. A few egg trays later I came across a Scallop Shell (only the third site record after singles in July 2010 & 2014) and then, a real surprise in the form of a blackish pyralid sporting a distinctive white band which I identified as Elegia similella. While I am aware of a number of records from the Suffolk coast, chatting with Matthew, we think this could be new to VC26. All in all, not a bad twelve hours mothing

Elegia similella – Woolpit 16 July 2016

Having been out of the country for the first half of July I was interested to find out how the season had progressed on my return. Having been used to full traps every night (mv and 20w WEM bulbs) on holiday in Bulgaria, how would the 2 types of light fare in the UK? Seemed a mild evening last night, 16 degrees at dusk but with a bit of a breeze blowing.
Check of the traps this morning revealed what I would call a poor catch here for the time of year. About 100sp, with the WEM trap pretty empty. Even common species like the footmen and Uncertain in low numbers. Not all bad though as there was a new site record – a worn Blackneck moth.
With warm humid conditions forecast for the coming week I will be watching my catches with interest – will the moth season finally get going? Or is the whole year going to be a write-off?

Neil

Caught in Robinson trap in Grundisburgh on 15th July 2016.
Any other sitings? it is listed as a rare immigrant

After a poor first half of 2016 we had a spell of summer one week into July. Most moth-ers seem to have taken advantage of it, though numbers were still down for me on early July peaks of the last few years and unlike some of the Waveney Valley moths my interest was mainly in the micros. I trapped at Captain’s Wood on the 6th and Abbey Farm on 8th. Otherwise just at home with the 6th and 8th catches being around the 160 species mark at all sites visited.

Swallow Tailed moth has been common this year and a good number of Evergestis limbata at home this year. Also at home my first Purple Clay on 8th and Archips xylosteana and Blotched Emerald on a couple of days each. A male Elachista scirpi on 14th which seems to be becoming a regular now. Then a beauty that I had been hoping for for a while; Coleophora trifolii on 6th (some may not appreciate my delight!). On the 6th I also caught my 4th Cydia inquinatana of the year. A moth I believe is resident here. A few migrants by way of regular small numbers of Udea ferrugalis, Silver Y and Plutella xylostella, though the latter may now be home grown too. Then on 8th a Pearly Underwing and a pristine Catoptria verellus. Last years C. verellus was rather tatty.

Pleased to get a good catch at Captain’s Wood this time. Lunar Yellow Underwing has been found on two dates now. New to me were a Ypsolopha vittella a beech feeder and Bucculatrix demaryella. Lots of Argyresthia species and in common with Abbey Farm one Coleophora potentillae. I took one of these also at Staverton Park a year ago so that is 3 for me now.

Abbey Farm turned out to be a mosquito feeding ground. Large numbers of Round-winged Muslin in the trap near the reeds and lots of Common White Wave and Stathmopoda pedella in the other trap which turned up more interest. One of those new to me was Bucculatrix cidarella. It sent me fruitlessly searching for images of four spotted Nepticulids before appreciating what it was. Also there amongst the numerous Gelechiids was Monochroa suffusella. Now I first picked this up for Suffolk as a single specimen at home last year. At Abbey Farm there were a lot. Not sure how many as it is not exactly of striking appearance but it turned up 6 to dissect along with Gelechiids and also along with the Coleophora. I am reasonably sure of the ID owing to the size and colour plus the genitalia dissection however the moths exhibit more spots that the images of suffusella in MOGBI and in fact have the appearance of M. niphognatha. The genitalia dissection don’t match that species though.

Wishing all, good mothing.

Two years ago while trapping in early July with Keith at a site on the Somerleyton estate we recorded over 40 Four-spotted Footman, males and females. We returned in hope last year but recorded just one male. So our target moth when we returned to the site on Thursday 7th was of course Four-spotted. Is it breeding in the area or was the 2014 record just a freak year? By 2am we had still drawn a blank but on the final inspection while packing up; Keith found 3 very fresh males in his 125mv traps. We ruled out migrants, so breeding is still supposed. Probably emergence is later than 2014 which was a season when everything was early.
As it was a good warm cloudy evening, there were plenty of other moths to keep us busy. We had a few that didn’t look right for Mottled Beauty so we potted one each to have a closer look in the hope that they might be Satin Beauty especially as there is an abundance of the food-plant at the site. I checked mine but released it, thinking it was just a dark specimen of Mottled. Fortunately Keith retained his and in the light of day it proved to be a Satin – new for both of us. We probably had about 5.
Just short of 150 species on the night which included Gold Swift, Clay Triple-lines, Lilac Beauty, Juniper Pug, Red-necked Footman (10), Grey Arches, good numbers of Shaded Fan-foot and several Pine Hawk-moth. The micros appeared in good numbers and included Strophedra weirana, Cydia coniferana. Olindia schumacherana, Spatalistis bifasciana and Dioryctria sylvestrella.
So the riddle of the Four-spotted has not quite been solved. Maybe a further visit to the site in a weeks’ time would be more conclusive but would the weather co-operate in this unpredictable year?

 Satin Beauty (Keith Knights)

Brian

It is such an odd feeling having finally had a night worth blogging about. Pickings here in Woolpit have been slim – so much so that by the end of June I was still four short of one hundred species for the year. To put that into some context, my average catch over the last few years has been around 350 species. If things stay the way they are, I  might just scrape 250 by year end.

So what of last night. Individual numbers remained stubbornly low but I did managed just under 45 species, the best being singles of Bordered White, Lime & Elephant Hawk. Moth of the night will be the “‘mainly white with some black patches” Ectodemia that looks a bit like decentella. If it can be determined by gen det it will be new to the site.