Suffolk Moths Blog

Over the past couple of weeks my garden trap has been a bit average, despite the warm nights. Total moth numbers generally low, though with good range of species (so I’m not complaining!). Some obvious ups and downs – rustic has been commoner this year than uncertain, and I’ve seen as many southern wainscots as common wainscots. A good year for maple prominent, but a bad one for lesser swallow prominent.

Apart from a few silver y and a dark sword-grass the migrants have been thin on the ground. Last night was better, with a few white-point, silver y and my first ever tree-lichen beauty. Having read other blogs it had seemed I was the only person not catching this rather pretty little creature. Also, my first pine hawk for the year (I usually only ever see two or three a year, usually in late June/early July, so I wonder if this too was a migrant.)

With warm winds from the south and thunderstorms moving across from France a trap session was arranged at Bawdsey picnic site to try and catch some migrants that may have been brought up with the weather.
On arrival it was found that it was a bit breezy out on the salt-marsh area so this reduced the number of lights operated as we had to place them out in the sheltered picnic site only. 5 lights run, 3 125w MV plus 2 30w twin actinic. Moths were very slow in coming in, despite the fact it was warm, something I see Keith noticed on his trapping session the same night. May have been due to the clear skies to start with. Cloud moved over about midnight with a slight increase in moths coming in including salt-marsh species. Then, at 1am the first shower started so we sheltered in the cars for a short while. At 2am it really started to throw it down with rain so once there was a brief lull I decided to put my traps away and head for home, weaving in and out of the huge puddles on the roads.
What of the moths, were there any migrants? 1 Cydia amplana, 1 Silver Y and a few Plutella xylostella, so only a few noted. Other more interesting moths to me included: Agonopterix purpurea, Tree-lichen beauty (at least 15 noted), Marbled green, Ground lackey (a few), Epermenia chaerophyllella, Sandhill rustic (a few), Saltern ear, Gypsonoma aceriana and Platytes alpinella. 120+ species noted.

Neil

Yes, finally, after waiting since the end of March for a new moth site record one turns up. Not on what I would call the best of nights for recording either, with a clear sky and the moon starting to brighten the sky.
What I would describe as a light ‘sprinkling’ of moths on the egg trays in the morning with very little to get excited about. But crawling around in the bottom of the trap was a slightly worn Yponomeuta that looked on the small side that was tubed up for later examination. Has turned out to be Yponomeuta plumbella, not a great rarity nationally but it is in this area with the nearest Spindle bush probably at least a mile away!

On the theme of underwing moths that has been mentioned in previous blogs, no Large yellow underwings trapped at all here last night. In fact the only underwing species seen was Lesser broad bordered with 3 caught.

Neil

Brian and I trapped the same area of the site that we have of late. A mere 7 traps placed on the main ride over a 400m+ stretch. A pretty uneventful night which seemed slow and a total of around 115 species recorded despite warm conditions. Four-spotted Footman would appear to be over but of course can’t be ruled out from a later visit this year. Small Rufous and M. atropuncta the highlights. Barred Hook-tip, Birch Mocha, Webb’s Wainscot, several C. pinella and Clay triple-lines also seen.

Having been woken at 4:30am by a heavy rain shower I dashed outside to cover the trap as best I could. Despite still being half asleep I potted up a few moths to check on later when I knew my brain would be functioning. Just as well really because … in addition to a nice Swallow and Lesser Swallow Prominent … I’d inadvertently potted up a Small Rufous (Coenobia rufa) – yet another addition to the garden list in what has been a real purple patch.

Well it’s been an interesting spell. I have been coming to the conclusion since I made some Robinson type traps over the winter that the design I have stumbled upon is the most efficient of any. As a consequence and after speaking with potentially impacted neighbours I have placed one equipped with an 125W MV into the front garden. This is where I have taken the more interesting species in the past. I now run two MVs and a compact actinic. Results have been good. I have trapped on 5 occasions during the period and species counts have ranged from 249 to 167. Whilst this sound good (but bear in mind I do all the micros) it has been hard work and the invasion by yellow underwings also started. The worst night was of 16th when there were well over the thousand in the front trap. A quick hand movement saw the trap erupt. Egg trays were weighted down by the number of underwings that decimated most of the smaller moths leaving them in the cloud of scale dust rolling around the bottom of the trap. If you don’t get them you are lucky! Primarily pronuba but also a lot of fimbriata and comes with some janthe and interjecta. But to the other species. Buff-tip has been prominent this year as have the prominents with the second brooders adding to the summer species at the moment. Teleiopsis diffinis has had a good year and I have picked up a number of Festoon not seen in my previous two years. Hawk-moths still going strong with second brood Poplar out now. Also taken in this spell have been, Pine, Elephant, Lime and Privet. Good for pugs on 27th with 9 species: Maple, Lime-speck, Bordered, Juniper, Tawny Speckled, Currant, White-spotted, V and Double striped. Water Beetles flying on 16th (trying to identify these with difficulty), also picked up a Lesser Stag Beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus) and a longhorn beetle Arhopalus rusticus (ID thanks to Neil Sherman for that one).

A good spell for immigrant in the country. A few taken here. Of the ‘routine’ species, of which some may be resident too I have had Dark Swordgrass, Silver Y (common), Plutella xylostella (abundant), Cydia amplana, Oncocera semirubella and one Yponomeuta rorrella. Other migrants/immigrants appear in my additions to site list.

It has been a good spell for additions to my site list. There have been common species, rare species and migrants/immigrants. Something of a list but started with the moth which to me had the biggest wow factor, a Nemophora fasciella taken by day in the garden: Dotted Clay, Scarce Silver-lines, Portland Moth (very pretty for a noctuid), Dotted Footman (sorry Keith, but then I still haven’t had a 4-spotted), Small Dotted Buff, Sitochroa verticalis, Palpita vitrealis, Large Tabby (in the shower cubicle), Apotomis turbidana, Epinotia brunnichana, Dichrorampha vancouverana,  Mompha propinquella, Anacampsis populella, Batrachedra praeangusta, Elachista (Biselachista) scirpi, Leucoptera laburnella, Phyllonorycter nicelli, P. rajella, Zelleria hepariella, Tischeria ekebladella and Stigmella hybnerella.

Catches have been modest recently but there have been a few good moths in with the usual suspects. Two new site records first: Small Wainscot on the 23rd and a Webb’s Wainscot last night (30th). The first Svensson’s Copper Underwing of the year was recorded on the 21st. Last night was also n0table for Square-spotted Clay and Dark Spinach. I am still catching good numbers of Poplar Hawkmoth. Still only single Silver Y’s though.

Mark