Suffolk Moths Blog

As others have reported, the moth season is now in full swing with some good catches here in the last week. Not had over 100sp yet but up in the eighties. Have moved the traps around a bit too, trying not only the garden and the usual spot around the worksheds on the course but also ran lights in some Alder carr woodland for a bit more variety. Catches dominated by 3 species – Treble lines (137 caught on the 22nd highest count), Orange footman (50 highest number, again on 22nd) and Coleophora albicosta (no surprise there really being a heathland site with loads of Gorse). More interesting species for me have included: Buttoned snout (2 caught in the Alder carr wood, not often caught at light here but breeds on site on the abundant Hops), Grey birch, Seraphim (a few each time), Satin wave, May highflyer (15 seen in the Alder wood), Coronet (2), Brindled white spot (a few), Incurvaria oehlmanniella, Clay triple-lines (2 on 20th, only seen it a few times here before), Light brocade (regularly about 5 seen each night), Figure of eighty, Epinotia rubiginosana, Argyresthia glabratella (2nd site record 20th), Puss moth (not seen every year here so a good one for me, found about 5 metres away from the actinic trap, often they are found a distance away from the trap),  Cydia conicolana and C.cosmophorana, Cochylis nana, Alder moth and Pammene obscurana (3rd site record). Following on from Raymond’s late Pine beauty sighting, I caught a fresh one on the 22nd, not my latest ever as I’ve had one in June before.
Nice to see good numbers of moths about again following on from the good summer we had last year. Let’s hope this recovery continues.

Neil

Three nights trapped in this period. On the 17th at home and 55 species including Puss Moth, Treble lines being a very abundant moth this year as with Brimstone which was seldom seen early on last year. Highlight was distant Bittern booming throughout my trap examinations.

On the 21st I trapped near Herringfleet sewage works a hopeful site for Obscure Wainscot. An exposed site only one trap was in still air. 50 species including a single Drinker, Flame Wainscots, Water Ermine, A. mitterbacheriana, L. reliquana. Will return in a few weeks for the target.

Herringfleet Hills on the 22nd with Brian.  Not sure if he thought I was ambitious with a species target of 75 but it was smashed on a perfect night with 120 species recorded. Highlight will probably be a micro but must wait for confirmation later in the year on that one. Best moth for me on the night was Small Elephant hawk-moth as probably the third time seen by me up here and only my second record. Other hawks included Eyed, Poplar, Lime and Elephant. Scorched Wing, Figure of Eighty also seen. Clouded bordered Brindle and the dark form plus Small Clouded Brindle, Green Silver-lines, Epinotia demarniana. Best micro identified on the night Nascia cilialis which is turning up all over on the wetter parts of Somerleyton Estate. This was certainly the most productive moth night I have ever experienced in May!

Having been away from home for a week I returned to warm unbroken sunshine, for two days anyhow, moonlit nights after midnight though. The two nights that followed improved as the cloud built. 17th to 20th May. My return found the Treble Lines had knocked the Shuttle-shaped Dart off the top spot. Species well into the early summer with Setaceous Hebrew Character, Scoparia ambigualis and Crambus lathoniellus around. Then surprised to take a Common Quaker in good condition on 18th and a worn Pine Beauty on 19th. My routine Ox-eye Daisy feeders Dicrorampha acuminatana and Bucculatrix nigricomella are on the wing and I took a third spring nepticulid, Stigmella roborella at the compact actinic trap. I am however not pleased to see the occasional Large Yellow Underwing but am hopeful they will not overcrowd the compact actinic which seems to catch very few noctuids.  Five pleasing additions to my site list were from the 19th and 20th:- Lobster Moth, with just a hint of pink the Rosy Wave, the very pretty Pseudargyrotoza conwagana and two beech feeders, a Clay Triple-lines and a Parornix fagivora (dissected). Species counts 61,63,77 and 107.

I also took two brief daytime excursions. Firstly to Bromeswell Green where I had seen Marsh Marigold flowering and hoped to pick up Micropterix calthella. Having just left the song in my back garden I was greeted by another Nightingale as I stepped from my car at the site. The Marigold had finished flowering but I found my quarry along with Glyphipterix simpliciella on buttercup flowers. Also took Silver Ground Carpet there but failed to net two other micros.

The other excursion was to the Rendlesham Forest where an area of bracken had been completely eaten back last year reportedly by sawfly larvae. I found no sawfly but rather a number of Brown Silver-line. Perhaps it is Lepidoptera that were responsible. Also took a Mother Shipton and found two micros in abundance; Cydia ulicitana flying amongst the Gorse and Glyphipterix fuscoviridella amongst the Field Wood-rush.

I did an early evening walk round the nearby SWT Fen Barn reserve with my net yesterday. There were several day flying micros on the wing in the warm sunshine. Those I managed to net included several Dichrorampha acuminatana, Scoparia pyralella, Glyphipterix simpliciella and a couple of Glyphipterix fuscoviridella which is a new species for the site.
There were many Cinnabars on the wing but the only macro I netted was a Yellow Shell, the first I’ve seen this year.

Brian

I too was in Scotland with Paul, Matthew, Bill Last and Steve Whitehouse for part of last week so hadn’t trapped at home for a while. My first and only night’s trapping back here so far was on Friday night, when my garden traps caught 42sp. Commonest moths Coleophora albicosta and Orange footman. Nice things for me included Waved umber (not that common here), Dwarf pug (3), Argyresthia spinosella, Scorched wing, Light brocade, Alder moth (the dark f.suffusa) and Orthotaenia undulana (2). With the prospect of some more warm nights to come I’ll certainly be trapping more when time allows.

Neil

Bill Last and myself went out to have a bit of a search for the Large red belted clearwing yesterday lunchtime/early afternoon, a moth that Bill had never seen. A check of the Lower Hollesley site found nothing, the Birch stumps that used to be attractive for the moth now looking too old. Using the pheromone here was also a negative result. We then moved on to Sutton heath, where a check of a spot where I saw the moth a couple of years ago again was negative both searching and using the pheromone. We then moved on to an area also at Sutton where there has been a lot of tree clearance in the last few years where there were some more recent stumps and this is where we managed to locate one female moth investigating a cut stump. Nothing came in to the pheromone again at this spot. The moth was slightly worn so maybe with the early warm spring we have had they have been out for a while.

Neil

Having just returned from a succesfull trip to Scotland I was a feeling a little mothed out but, with the prospect of a warm night ahead, I decided to put my trap out and see what was “flying tonight”. In hindsight, this turned out to be a smart move. Getting up early enough to beat the local Blackbird to the contents I recorded some 30 species, the pick of which was a superb Netted Pug. It’s been almost three years to the day since I last saw this species here.

Also of note were singles of Buttoned Snout, Light Brocade, Pale Tussock and Oak Hook-tip. Things were rounded off when a calling male Cuckoo flew low over the garden

Good cloud cover yesterday evening ensured that it was just that. So I left a 125MV running in the garden while I took 3 other traps down the road to the Fen Barn SWT reserve for a couple of hours. Combined result was the best evening of the year so far with 64 species recorded, 26 being new for the year. These included Marbled Brown, Treble-bar, Peacock Moth, Buff-tip, Maple Prominent, Freyer’s Pug and several new micros. All packed up and put away by 12.30.

Brian