Also in the Pink

Your moth reminded me of one from my garden at Norchard in 2005. This one is a Beaded Chestnut. I would take a punt at Flounced Rustic for yours. The milder weather has produced Spring Ushers, Pale Brindled Beauty's, and a Common Quaker here in the past few days.

In the Pink

Am busy going through all of my unknown moths slowly identifying them all and mostly micro-moths.  The microscopes are very busy!  This one was in the latest batch.  A macro! I've dissected it and it surprised me.  Note the pink flush along the costa and the very pink underneath.  Anyone like to guess?  I'll name it in a few days.  Peter Hall

 

Send in your Records please!

As we approach the years end, it's time to sort out all of your moth records and send them onto the relevant County Recorder.  For Worcester, please send to either Tony Simpson or Oliver Wadsworth and for Hereford, please send Macro-moths to Phyl King and Micro-moths to myself please.  If you need e-mail addresses, there is a link provided to go straight to the County Moth Recorder list for the UK and you will find our details there. It's on the right hand side of the cover page under Useful Links.  I'm still getting Winter moths and Mottled Umber coming to the house windows most nights, so I'm not yet ready to send my records off (plus I'm still dissecting some moths), but soon will be.  Happy Christmas to one and all. Peter Hall

Last Trench of 2017

The last field effort of 2017 was back to Trench Wood with the mobile 15watt Actinic Skinner on the slighter milder and cloudy night on 5th December. After setting the trap, a torchlit walk along those same sheltered rides covered in mid-November, saw a rough count of 120 male Winter Moths flying and perching in all directions. Three mating pairs were found as was a single female on a truck about a meter above the ground.


female Winter Moth
The main target had been Scarce Umber and the 100 minute session resulted in 11 males hung up on blackthorn branches. Some were more strongly marked than others Sadly no mating pairs or females were located.

two male Scarce Umbers

Female December Moth

5 Mottled Umbers were also torched and these were all the plainer, brown-stippled forms. The trap itself attracted a Chestnut, 2 Scarce Umbers and 13 Winter Moths. Interestingly there were no December Moths by 18:40. Two nights earlier the home garden MV on the 3rd December had a new garden record 13 December Moths overnight including just one female which laid 30 eggs in a pot and these are now incubating very slowly in the fridge!

 

I thought it was December ?!

Found this unseasonal Dark Arches in the garden trap (SE Worcs) on Sunday evening (3rd Dec) along with more expected December and Winter Moths !

NE WORCESTER AREA

Into Winter Mode now so the 15w Actinic was out in Trench Wood last night from 16:45 in very calm, mild and cloudy conditions. Hoping to follow up on last December's result, so wandering through some tunnel-like rides in the north part of wood resulted in at least a dozen Northern Winter Moths clinging to bare blackthorn stems in the eerie darkness and were not that bothered by the soft torchlight.

Northern Winter Moth



Drizzle started at 23:00 so a quick count-up produced 32 Feathered Thorns, 7 December Moths, 6 Chestnuts, 3 Winter Moths, 3 more Northerns and 3 Sprawlers. Two November Moths sp. included this quite well-marked contender for Pale November Moth, with the discal spot isolated from the median crossline on both wings. No umbers were seen so will be back next month.

Pale November Moth



The plain Epirrita sp image below, was later gen-detted by Patrick Clement and was as expected another Pale November Moth and a male.

Male Pale November Moth

Back at the Warndon garden another Sprawler was sat on the white boards and a Scrobipalpa costella and Green-brindled Crescent were in the Robbo.

Sprawler



Bringsty Common November 15th

Another mild night and I remembered to put a moth trap out for a change. I just made double figures with 10 species.  Red-line Quaker (1), Feathered Thorn (9), Brick (1), December (5), Red-green Carpet (3), Sprawler (1), Yellow-line Quaker (1), November (1) gen det., Udea ferrugalis (1) and Epiphyas postvittana (1).  Peter Hall

Bringsty Common: Udea ferrugalis

Bringsty Common: Feathered Thorn

Bringsty Common: December

 

Bringsty Common November 3rd

Am pleased to say I recorded a Sprawler last night in the overnight rain, which had eluded me the night before. 9 species, so a better night than the one before with Feathered Thorn topping the bill with 10 individuals. Peter Hall

Bringsty Common: Sprawler

 

If it's November it must be December

Now that October is over and November moths are almost done, it's November...and December moths start to appear of course.  I was trying for a Sprawler (unsuccessfully) and got a December instead.  6 species, 20 moths.  Yellow-line Quaker, December, Chestnut, Feathered Thorn, Silver Y and November (gen det). Peter Hall

Bringsty Common: December moth

Early emergence.

Phyllonorycter schreberella

An early emergence from my leaf mines this morning, along with 2 Phyllonorycter maestingella.

Patrick Clement

Late October at Warndon

Red-line Quaker

Dark Chestnut

Can't compete with Mike's tropical selection but a few nice moths as the garden cooled down this week. A Grey Shoulder-knot and Red-lined Quaker needed a ladder to pot them off the back house wall.


Diurnea lipsiella

Grey Shoulder-knot


Tried the actinic on Thursday and was rewarded with a superb Dark Chestnut. Last night a bit of a puzzler - a rather plain and triangular moth with subtle angles and patterned Diurnea lipsiella, following singles here on the 30th October 2011 and 2015.

Purple Marbled

Following the four Vestals yesterday, this Purple Marbled came to mv light at Norchard ,Worcs, last night. This appears to be a second county record. Also was two Silver Y, and a Rusty-dot Pearl, but no more Vestals. A Sprawler, and a Figure of Eight were my first records for the season this morning.

Common Quaker

This Common Quaker was an early arrival last night at Norchard, Worcs, probably due to the mild weather. Also recorded were Yellow-tail, Flame Shoulder and a late Scorpion fly. Four Vestals were the only obvious migrants.

Southern Softies

Some effort checking the Ivy by  Nunnery Wood CP from late September was rewarded with a Pearly Underwing on the 26th September.

Pearly Underwing

 A Rusty Dot Pearl was found on the nearby outdoor café wall lights on the 8th October. A Cypress Carpet was in the garden Robinson after Friday 13th October (not for me unlucky).

Cypress Carpet

 and a Delicate was the pick of the migrants at Mike's NMN effort on 14th October. 

Coleophora bonus

Coleophora binderella larval case, Trench Wood.

I've been making the effort to do a bit more leaf-mining this autumn so this morning, although it was cold, damp and grey, I visited Trench Wood hoping to find Phyllonorycter esperella on hornbeam. Whilst I failed to find the target I had a good selection of mines of other species and even managed to see the larval stages of three Coleophs, Coleophora gryphipennella on rose, C. lusciniaepennella on sallow and C. binderella on grey alder so there is always something worth seeing.

Patrick Clement

Bringsty Common End of the World

When the sun went red his morning in the sky and the gathering clouds looked really stormy I wondered about the apocalypse.  Hurricane due and not a wisper of wind at 9am.  How that changed and quickly. I've been running 2 moth ttraps in the garden these past three days. Combined there were 48 species identified with a couple still to do (including Novembers). Some migrant activity with Nomophila noctuella and last night no less than 4 Vestals.  There's been interest recently in late emerging species and I had a Small Fan-footed Wave 3 nights ago, then Heart & Dart 2 nights ago and last night a half sized Riband Wave in the trap.  No late records broken though (Phyl?) New for the site was a Large Wainscot. Peter Hall

Bringsty Common: Red Morning sun

Bringsty Common: Merveille du Jour

Bringsty Common: Large Wainscot

Bringsty Common: Brick

Bringsty Common: Brindled Green

Bringsty Common: Vestal

Bringsty Common: Figure of 8

National Moth Night

Quite a few moths on the nearby ivy here at Norchard, Worcs, including this Dotted Chestnut. I am running a public event from my house tomorrow night starting at 7pm, so if anybody is free they are welcome to join us. The details are on the moth night website.

Ruby Tiger and Mottled Rustic

I had this Ruby Tiger in the garden this morning. The books say that the odd one appears in the south as a third brood. Also a second brood Mottled Rustic on Friday night was unusual here at Norchard..

Bohemannia auriciliella

Bohemannia auriciliella

Tiny moths and flies will sometimes overheat and die on top of the rain guard above an MV lamp and on a good night with warm humid conditions there may be a fair number of corpses by morning so it is always worth brushing everything into a pot for careful examination at a later date. I did just that after an all-night session in woodland near Hallow, (Worcs), in late August and sifting through the debris a couple of days ago one Nep stood out as being a 'bit different' and so it proved to be. Dissection showed it to be Bohemannia auriciliella, a scarce species with only around a dozen records in the UK although Guy Meredith recorded one in Gloucestershire earlier this year so maybe one to look out for.
Patrick Clement

Clifden Nonpareil in Eastham

Ken Willetts had a very nice surprise in his garden moth trap up in north west Worcestershire yesterday -
Clifden Nonpareil - formerly resident in parts of the south east of the country but now a rare migrant, a first for VC37 Worcestershire.

Encouragement, if any were needed, to keep trapping at this time of year - you never know what might turn up.

72.076 BF2451
Clifden Nonpareil Catocala fraxini

Bringsty Common 4 days later...

A mild night, but very damp with drizzle and mist, but I ran one Robinson down the bottom of the garden and it was quite busy.  With the winds again becoming southerly I was more hopeful of some migrants, but only 2 Nomophila noctuella blessed the trap from foreign lands. 239 moths comprising 23 macro-moth species and 12 micro-moth species.  Topping the bill was Lunar underwing with 30, followed by Large Yellow Underwing (24) then Setaceous Hebrew Character (21) and Brown-spot pinion (21).  Other Autumnal species were Pink-barred Sallow, Sallow, Beaded Chestnut, Black Rustic, Frosted Orange, 16 Autumnal Rustic, Vine's Rustic.  Rather unsually for me at least, 1 Red Underwing was also in the trap rather than sitting on a nearby wall. Peter Hall

Bringsty Common:  Eudonia angustea

 

 

Bringsty Common: Autumnal Rustic

Bringsty Common: Dusky Thorn

Bringsty Common:  Egg boxes were quite "busy"

 

Bringsty Common September 20th

The first warmer night for ages, so out went 1 trap despite the stiff breeze.  Found a sheltered spot behind a hedge and the trap was very appealing to wasps during the night, which made me take extra care going through the egg boxes this morning. 18 species of macro and 5 micro.  Topping the bill was Lunar Underwing with 12 individuals followed by Autumnal Rustic with 10.  Late Summer/early Autumn moths like Frosted Orange, Sallow, Brown-spot Pinion, Beaded Chestnut, Black Rustic and Ypsolopha parenthesella all made appearances.  No migrants, but then the recent northerly winds will account for that. Peter Hall

Bringsty Common:  Light Emerald

Bringsty Common: Frosted Orange

Bringsty Common:  Hypsopygia costalis

Bringsty Common: Autumnal Rustic

Bringsty Common: Beaded Chestnut

Hall Green garden first.

Cypress Pug       Photo A. Prior

Alan Prior recorded Cypress Pug in his Hall Green garden for the first time last night, species number 715 for the site.

Patrick Clement