Suffolk Moths Blog

September trapping has now finished at Bawdsey Hall.  The final week of the month provided some more species ‘new on the wing’ for the autumn.  Mallow, Deep-brown Dart, Satellite and Pink-barred Sallow were noted at the start of the week.  More recently, on the night of 29th: Blair’s Shoulder-knot appeared and a mint Merveille du Jour - mint in every sense of the word!  The final night of the month produced a Pale Pinion – this moth had a fantastic spring, with record numbers recorded here.

Migrants were disappointing in the past week, despite promising winds.  A few more Convolvulus Hawk-moths arrived – taking the year’s tally to eight so far.  The odd Pearly Underwing appeared and then it was down to common migrants.

Looking forward to October now – my favourite month of the year for mothing as I love the autumn species and the chance for some rare migrants too.

Seeing that Tawny Pinion was had on Ivy recently, can I just check this one. I umm’ed and arr’ed and went for Pale. Would gladly stand corrected and apologies for quality of image.

A mid-week excursion on this occasion as Matthew Deans was in a position to take a day off work and as it happened this was the better of the moth nights in the week. Warm, calm, humid and cloudy. We deployed three MV Robinsons at our routine locations. The night turned up most of the expected autumn noctuids along with a few specials of the area.

We searched the brambles for moths feeding on the blackberries during the first hour or so of the evening and found 17 species out of the total of 73 recorded for the night. 4 of these were exclusive to the brambles: singles of Brick and Red-line Quaker, three Herald and most interestingly an abundance of Agonopterix arenella which was equally as common there as the Snout and Square-spot Rustic. Angle Shades turned up later than most for the feast.

Only 3 sallows by way of the Pink-barred, Dusky-lemon and The Sallow along with it’s flavescens aberration which is regular in the area. The first Grey Shoulder-knot of the season for us both was taken along with a freshly emerged Dingy Footman. Still being caught were the Pinion-streaked Snout and Monopis monachella and the regular Clepsis spectrana. 7 Dark Sword-grass and 1 Pearly Underwing. Also of interest were 2 Feathered Brindle, 3 Deep-brown Darts on the meadow and a single almost unicolourous Acleris emargana (confirmed by dissection).

Deep-brown Dart

The Sallow. Xanthia icteritia ab. flavescens

5 nights trapping from 21st to 27th and apart from the 21st a moth of the night every night! Large Yellow Under-wing remains the most common moth during this period followed by Lesser, then Setaceous Hebrew Character which is now declining. High numbers of Lunar Under-wing also.
The 21st, a much brighter night than I’d anticipated, even so, 34 species recorded. The best being Dark Spectacle. Gold Spot, Heart & Dart and Rush Veneer also recorded.
Next the 24th, Moth of the night a very pretty male Vestal. Among the 52 species recorded; Calybites phasisanipennella, 6 Pale Mottled Willow and the average nightly tally of 4 Black Rustic, the first Blair’s Shoulder-knot and Red-green Carpet of the Autumn.
The 25th; Best moth a Lunar Yellow Under-wing, the first record for home and only the 4th I’ve ever seen. 40 species recorded.
26th; One of the first moths seen another Vestal, extremely similar to the earlier one but this time a female, also Autumnal Rustic of which I only have a similar number of records to Vestal. 36 species recorded.
The 27th’s best moth was a Shore Wainscot, another home first! Among the 40 species on this night were the first Mallows with four seen and the first Red Line Quaker, two Red Under-wings with singles nightly through the period. Pink-barred along with Sallow and Barred Sallow the only Sallows here this week. The 60w actinic on any cloudy night has performed as well as the mv’s.
Like Raymond probably giving it a rest now until the wind subsides.

I have decided not to trap on the few windy days left in the month so this is my report on the second half of September for my garden in Hollesley. I am still plagued by an excess of Large Yellow Underwings, 100 to 300 each night. The other common moths of early September, Turnip, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Square-spot Rustic, White Point and Vine’s Rustic are all well on the way down. Climbing numbers of Black Rustic, Beaded Chestnut, Lunar Underwing and Feathered Ranunculus. Have the local Feathered Brindle again. Two surprise late emergences for Dingy Footman and Yponomeuta plumbella.

New to my site list have been Nephopterix angustella and Chrysoesthia drurella.

Have had a lovely selection of ‘sallows’ here this year, Sallow, Centre-barred, Barred, Pink-barred, Dusky-lemon and Orange all during the second half of September. Five of them together on 24th.

Interested to read of Neil’s dark Dioryctria simplicella as I got quite exited to see a striking black and white coloured Dioryctria on 20th that turned out to be D simplicella.

I have also taken my second Prays ruficeps. The one last year was incorrectly reported as Prays fraxinella. P ruficeps which has glossy black wings and a sandy brown head is now properly distinguished from the dark form of P fraxinella. My genitalia preparations also confirm the identification of both specimens.

A strange thing happened last night – I actually set my trap in the back garden. The first time since the 9th August. 18 species, 93 moths. 35 Large Yellow Underwing, 27 Lunar Underwing and a collection of the usual autumn fayre. Alas no Merveille du Jour or Black Rustic.

More importantly though, I just had another check of the Alton Hall Lane ivy and some of the Lower Street patches. 40 minutes along the lane produced 26 moths of 13 species. Dominant was Angle Shades with eight, but the highlight was a worn Lunar Yellow Underwing. Two more new ones for the ivy year-list were Red-green Carpet and a delightfully fresh Satellite taking us to 36 for the month.

In Lower Street, there were just three moths – a Large Yellow Underwing, Barred Sallow and another Orange Sallow, following one there on the 24th (I know it is not the same individual). We don’t tend to be overwhelmed with sallows here and any are a treat. I get the impression Neil that you do well for them?

In terms of timing, I had a check of the lane two nights ago around 11pm and found things much quieter than my usual 8.30 rounds. I would be interested to hear if anyone else found the same.

Despite the nice mild autumnal weather this week, moth numbers generally appear to have been low with me. Not trapped every night but when I have I’ve recorded on average 20sp (using the 125w MV and the 30w twin trap). Between 50 – 70 moths in total. I would have to check previous years but this seems a bit on the low side. Interesting that others are reporting Setaceous hebrew character as one of their common species, I’ve had none at all this week and before that I was only seeing 1-2 a night.
Moths of minor interest have included: Black rustic (first for year), Brown spot pinion (again, rare here this the only record so far this year), Orange sallow (a few), Red-green carpet (2 so far, first of the autumn), Sallow, Barred sallow (singles, both first for year) and probably most interesting for me a very dark coloured Dioryctria simplicella. Only ‘migrant’ (if you can call it that as it is more likely locally bred) a single Silver Y. Large yellow underwings more common in the actinic trap at the moment, numbers are going down though as are numbers of Square-spot rustic.
My Ivy patch is only just starting to come into flower, once this is out fully hopefully I’ll get better numbers of sallows etc.

Neil

I’ve spent a few afternoons recently doing some searching for leaf-mines and Olive Crescent larvae in south Suffolk. It seems more productive for leaf-mines than last year already, although macro-larvae seem to have been a bit thin on the ground. I’ve seen Stigmella aceris mines in most of the sites I’ve visited including Tattingstone, Capel St. Mary and Raydon.

One sighting of particular of interest was that of Chrysoesthia sexguttella mines on what appears to be Grass-leaved Orache Atriplex littoralis. C. sexguttella is a scarce species for us based on the records and would be well worth looking out for – I found these ones in the road-verge of a country lane.

Tony