Suffolk Moths Blog

Not been running traps during this cool spell so now catching up on things from last weekend. Ran 2 traps on the 22nd, a night when it rained heavily just after turning the traps on and was raining again when I shut them up to sort in the morning. Still, a good catch with over 50sp for the first time this year. More variety appearing with 4sp hawkmoth – Elephant, Small elephant, Poplar and Lime. Lot of Treble lines as it should be at this time of year. Red-green carpet was a late record. Seraphim appeared again seems to be having a good year here. Rest of catch pretty run of the mill for the time of year. Best moth was my second ever record of Pammene splendidulana, and as the name suggests a nice little micro.
I’ve also seen lots of Glyphipterix fuscoviridella out on the course, with Grapholita internana, Endothenia marginana and a few Pyrausta aurata all seen at home in the garden during the day.
Conditions looking better later this week so hope to trap again.

Neil

Endothenia marginana

Pammene splendidulana

In many ways this is more of a ‘not-sighting’ report having spent a pleasant few hours yesterday wandering around Bradfield Woods, mostly to the soundtrack of singing Blackcap, Chiffchaff and the odd Willow Warbler. My main reason for visiting was to look for the distinctive feeding signs of the larvae of Pterophorus galactodactyla. While I managed to find quite a few Burdocks, I failed to locate any signs of this plume moth. Given that Tony, Neil and I only found two larvae a few years ago (see Neil’s excellent write up dated 4 May 2014) I do hope that this is not a bad sign. On a more positive note, the buttercups in some sections of the wood were alive with Micropterix calthella and I also had a probable Micropterix mansuetella at rest very briefly on sedge flowers. A handful of Glyphipterix simpliciella, a couple of Drinker Moth larvae and the odd Speckled Wood pretty much summed it up ‘on the ‘lep’ front.

After the poor moth numbers at the very start of May, I was hoping things may have got going once I was back from my holiday in Estonia on the 14th. So the traps were put out on a number of occasions during the last week and I too found it tough going even on seemingly warm nights. Around 20sp the average and nothing really of note, best probably first Puss moth of the year on the 19th.
I see from the blog that I missed the best warm spell of the month (so far) while I was away. Typical!
However, this weekend there have been signs here that things are finally getting moving. Friday night was mild but a bit windy so traps were put out in the woods in the most sheltered areas I could find. Pleased to note around 40sp in the morning, my best catch of the year so far (but this is still poor really for this time in May). A number of year firsts including the first hawkmoths of the season with 2 Poplar noted, Least black arches, Flame shoulder, Rivulet, Buff tip, Pale tussock, Rustic shoulder-knot, Chocolate-tip and Broken barred carpet. More interest provided by the Glyphipterix fuscoviridella, a species normally more commonly seen in the daytime here and a small Gelechid that has me stumped at present, hope to get a photo shortly.
Last night the mild but rainy conditions brought in around 40sp again to my 2 traps at home, one trap being the 30w twin actinic which for the first time this year had more than a handful of moths in it! Year firsts included what I would class as late first dates for Pebble and Oak hook tips plus Brimstone. Also Marbled brown, Foxglove pug, Common pug, Cydia ulicetana (again late), Campion, Common swift (again, another late) and Marbled minor. More interesting were Pammene argyrana, Schrekensteinia festaliella and Phalonidia manniana.
I reckon going on emergence times of some of the species here my season is running about 3 weeks later than normal. Looking at the web this trend of poor catches seems to be prevalent all over certainly the south of the country. If we have a mild winter (like we just did) this normally results in a poor year for moths. Thing is, this has been happening a lot in recent years so moth populations aren’t getting the time to recover. This year is the 10th year after 2006, that ‘classic’ great moth year. Will we ever see that again? Hopefully if we get the warm summer that is being talked about in the press (can we really believe that?) this poor start will all be forgotten!

Neil

Similar disappointing results up here in the Waveney Valley. I have trapped 3 times over the past week on sites away from my garden (which is still producing very little) and even though conditions seemed quite favorable, the results were not up to expectations,
On the 15th I recorded just 27 moths of 18 species, the only highlight was the first Flame Wainscot of the year. Tuesday 17th was a small improvement with 37 species and around 140 moths the bulk of which were Green Carpet and this on a site where I generally record around 60 to 80 species in mid-May. Among these were single Alder Kitten and first generation Balsam Capet, this being the only one I’ve seen this year after several tries and on a site where it is usually abundant in mid-May.
Last night on a different site to the other two, it was also very slow considering the temperature was around 14 degrees. Once again nothing in the catch of 34 species to get excited about with Small Magpie, White-spotted Pug and Marbled Brown the only new ones for the year. The bats were very active swooping low over the sheet trap. Not that they were taking any moths, as there were only 2 Pale Tussock that came to that light. But there was an abundance of Caddis and May flies to keep them occupied. Keep trying.

Brian

Is it me, or is this year never going to get off the ground? Trap results in the garden continue to disappoint but at least I made it into double figures last night. That said, it was a case of one of this, one of that. New for the year were Swallow, Lesser Swallow and Coxcomb Prominent, Grey Dagger, Waved Umber and Garden Carpet. Am also still getting the odd Hebrew Character (2 on 17th) and Muslin Moth.

Strange weather in recent years either good or bad with no compromise. The last 5 days or so have been good. The warmer weather bringing out moths after a dismal April. Are we going to have a second flush. I have been getting Common Quaker and Hebrew Character in good condition.

Species counts at home have not been particularly high though, just around the 40 mark but it has been interesting. New for the year has also included Tinea crocicapitella, Cameraria ohridella, Sharp-angled Peacock, Orange Footman and Cinnabar. The easterly winds have increased and along with a weather front brought immigrants from the south. The frequent Plutella xylostella and Dark Sword-grass have been around. Ethmia bipunctella could be included but might be local but two other quite certainly aren’t. A Zophodia grossulariella on 8th May and a Cydia strobilella on 9th. The latter has been seen in numbers in the southern and eastern corner of England.

A visit to Captain’s Wood on 7th gave me a good catch considering recent form with 54 species. I went hoping to find Pammene giganteana, having found it at Staverton Park (not so far away) but instead got two others with larvae inquiline in oak galls, P. argyrana and P. albuginana. Some attractive moths were caught such as Adela reaumurella, Barred Hook-tip, Purple Thorn, Dotted Chestnut and Maiden’s Blush. Common were Brown Silver-line, Early Tooth-stripe, Great Prominent and Dyseriocrania subpurpurella. Amongst the Dyseriocrania were no Eriocrania sangii as my last visit but one of the purple species with a silver tornal spot, E. semipurpurella. Two Phyllonorycter turned up; ulmifoliella and coryli and what really surprised me was 3 Agonopterix scopariella, not a rare species but I had not noticed any broom in the area which made me confirm them by dissection.

Seems it is going to get cold and windy again now but might run again on Tuesday before it really sets in.

Brian and I trapped at Herringfleet Hills Sunday night. I had been hoping it would be much more sheltered than it turned out as it was breezy, and impossible to find sheltered spots for all the traps. That said in the end some of the sheltered traps did worse than some in a bit of wind. Best traps were again the sheet trap, and the one by sallow blossom  this time in a slightly windy spot.

I had in my head 45 species for a target before arriving which dropped to 40 on arrival, considering the wind. The fact that it was a warm night not dropping below 15C led to a better than expected night. 19 species of micros boosted the numbers with no more moths seen than a week ago but 53 species recorded. For me moth of the night was  I. masculella but this was because there were no less than 4 and I am only used to seeing singles and don’t believe I’ve seen the female before and there was only 1 male. Green Carpet, Brimstone, Flame Shoulder, Seraphim ( a moth of the night last year ), Mottled and V-Pug, Pale Tussock, Knotgrass, Rivulet, Waved Umber, Chinese Character and the pretty E. ministrana along with P. argyrana all added to a very satisfying night, which makes this  hard work site so typically worthwhile.

Last night (Friday) I tried one of my sites alongside the river Waveney that has produced poor results so far this year. Although the sky was clear the temperature stayed around 9 deg. and the results were reasonable with 10 species new for 2016 among the catch. These included Common Wave, Small Phoenix, Currant Pug, Puss Moth, Red Twin-spot Carpet and micros –  S. musculana, Garden Pebble, Elachista canapennella and C. proximella. Good numbers of Early Tooth-striped and Brindled Beauty came to the lights. 27 species in total and I expect the warm day contributed to the emergence of some of them. Sure to be more over the weekend.

Brian