Suffolk Moths Blog

Captured 3 Orthosia cerasi (Common Quaker) last night at Hollesley. Yes the season has started now the wind and rain has eased off a little. It is generally poor at the start of the year here and I have so far only tallied 6 other species for 2014. Lets hope the mild winter has been good for moths. It will also be interesting to see how the salt-marsh species have fared with the storm surge.

Like others, I took advantage of the lull in the recent wild weather (where yet more trees were blown over at the golf course following the large amount of damage caused by the St Jude storm) to get the traps out. Ran 2 125w MVs up in the woods around the work shed area (well, not so wooded now as many trees have been lost there).9sp, list below.
March moth – 6
Tortricodes alternella – 7
Pale brindled beauty – 10
Dotted border – 3
Oak beauty – 1
Small brindled beauty – 4
Chestnut – 9
Spring usher – 1
Acleris ferrugana – 1

Interesting comparing my results with what others caught and with previous years here. At this site Spring usher is almost over, saw quite a few of these at the end of January, while with Brian it seems to be still around in good numbers. At this time of year I would have expected more alternella, there were very low numbers caught, perhaps it is yet to come out or did it suffer in the cold spring last year? Also I caught a low number of Small brindled beauty, is often at its peak here at this time so again maybe it is running late. The Oak beauty has turned out to be my earliest ever record though.

Also had 2 Agonopterix scopariella attracted to the kitchen window last night, have seen heracliana there too on previous nights.

Looks like the season is now getting going, shouldn’t be too long till the Orthosias make an appearance.

Neil

I spent yesterday evening at Bawdsey Hall where we had just a single 125W MV Robinson operating. I was pleasantly surprised to record several Pale Brindled Beauty, Dotted Border, a single March Moth, half a dozen Chestnut, several Agonopterix heracliana and a Caloptilia sp. which I have retained for closer inspection.

Now that the wild weather has abated, I have run my 40w actinic for an hour or so the past 2 nights in the nearby woodland. Five species on 17th including first 2 March Moth of the year and an A. anthydactyla (out of hibernation?). Last night 6 species which included good numbers of PBB, Spring Usher & T. alternella and the first Agonopterix of the year which was heracliana. Over 40 moths last night in an hour and half, so things are on the move at last.

Brian

This is the quietest time of the year for my garden moths – the season starts late compared with other sites. I put the trap on last night for the first time, with modest aspirations. But no winter moths or pale brindled beauty, as I might have expected. Instead, just one moth, but an odd one – a brown plume (S. pterodactyla). Does anyone else see this species in the middle of winter?

With cloud and mild temperatures and little rain forecast for the night, thought I’d give trapping a try around the work-shed woods last night to see what was about. Having already seen the first Spring ushers towards the end of last week on the wall by the security lights around the clubhouse I was confident of getting at least a few of those.Was woken this morning by the sound of heavy rain rattling against the window – that wasn’t in the forecast! So the checking of the soaking wet traps had to take place under cover in my polytunnel. Was it all worth it? Yes, I suppose it was, with 57 moths of 7sp recorded. Here is the short list.
Chestnut – 14
Mottled umber – 1
Pale brindled beauty – 2
Spring usher – 34
Acleris ferrugana – 4
Tortricodes alternella – 1
Agonopterix heracliana – 1

I was a bit surprised not to see more Pale brindled beauties or Tortricodes alternella, as I normally get good numbers of those when I see numbers of Spring usher, especially as it has been quite a mild winter so far. Perhaps all this wet weather we are having has held them up.

Neil

The year’s recording has begun here at IGC. With the mild conditions yesterday evening I took a walk out onto the course to an area of acid grassland to search for the young larvae of Lunar yellow underwing. Wasn’t disappointed, managed to see 20 in about 15 minutes of searching the grass, all the caterpillars perched high up on dry stems, no doubt drying out after all the rain we have had! Also found larvae of Straw underwing (2), Square-spot rustic (6) and a single True lover’s knot larva on Heather. All larvae were very small apart from the True lover’s which was around 2cm long.
Then had a quick check of a few Oak tree trunks on the way back home – about 10 Winter moth seen, all males. A quick look around the security light at the clubhouse revealed 6 more Winter moth and 12 Mottled umber. No Spring usher or Pale brindled beauty though, so seems they haven’t got going here just yet.
Today, found a hibernating Acrolepia autumnitella, a nice find as I don’t see many of these each year. So, my list for 2014 is up to 7 already.
If we get a decent mild night soon I may try trapping.

Let’s hope 2014 is another good year for moths carrying on from the excellent second half of 2013.

Neil