Birthday Moths

Ran two traps last night (27th), each trap presented me with a nice birthday moth.

The 125w awarded me a Small Rufous:

And the 400w a Scorched Carpet:

Last night's catch

Here is what I caught last night. The minimum temperature was 12c. I trapped with two traps, a 125w with a clear MV bulb (lets out out more light) and a 400w trap (also MV).
You can see how big the 400w bulbs are, from the photo, also visible is the clear 125w.

Name	125w	400w
Magpie Moth	2
Common Footman	21	57
Dingy Footman	7	17
Clay	1	3
Dark Arches	3	29
Small Fan-footed Wave	2	6
Flame Carpet	2
Common Carpet	6	4
July Highflyer	2	5
Small Rivulet		3
Purple Thorn		4
Muslin Footman	7	27
Heart and Dart	12	5
Large Yellow Underwing	39	33
Smoky Wainscot	5	2
Common Rustic agg.	22	36
Small Dotted Buff	3	3
Light Emerald	1	2
Uncertain	13	7
Beautiful Hook-tip	1	5
Burnished Brass	2	2
Snout	1	2
Fan Foot	1
Herald		1
Riband Wave	7	8
Lesser Swallow Prominent		1
Chinese Character	1	3
August Thorn	1	1
Early Thorn	2	7
Poplar Hawk Moth	1	3
Brimstone		3
Marbled Minor agg.	1	5
Yellow-tail	3	7
Dark Spectacle		1
September Thorn	1	1
Shaded Broad Bar		1
Double Square Spot	8	8
Small Scallop		1
Plain Golden Y		1
Light Arches		6
Dun-bar	1	5
Buff Arches	4	1
Triple-spotted Clay	2	1
Rustic	2	1
Scalloped Oak	5	3
Pinion Streaked Snout		7
Beautiful Golden Y		2
Pebble Prominent	1	1
Clouded Border		1
Willow Beauty		1
Flame Shoulder		1
Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing		1
Scarce Footman		1
Straw Dot		1
Silver Y		1
Double-striped Pug	3	1
Dagger agg.	1
Blackneck	1
Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing	1	2
Elephant Hawk Moth	1
Coxcomb Prominent	1
Large Emerald	1
Oak Hook-tip	5
Swallow-tailed Moth	1
Bright-line Brown-eye	3
Shuttle-shaped Dart	1
Peppered Moth	1
Poplar Grey	1
Antler Moth	1
V-Pug	2
Double Lobed	1
Swallow Prominent	1
Iron Prominent	1
Drinker	1
True Lovers Knot	1
Plain Wave	1
Rivulet	1
Svensson's Copper Underwing		1
Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet		1
Scarce Silver Line	1
Antler Moth	1
Common Wainscot	1
Ling Pug	1
Agriphila straminella	20	84
Udea Prunalis	3	7
Mother of Pearl	2	7
Bird Cherry Ermine		1
Agapeta zoegana		1
Cochylis hybridella	1	3
Gold Triangle		2
Chrysoteuchia culmella	1
Garden Pebble	1
Agapeta hamana	1
Honeysuckle Moth		1
Agriphila inquinatella		2
Celypha striana		1
Hellinsia osteodactylus	1	1
Carcina quercana		3
Apple Ermine		1
Agriphila tristella	1	1
Trachycera advenella		2
Blastobasis adustella		1
Scoparia ambigualis	1	1
Eucosma cana	2
Dipleurina lacustrata	1
Aethes rubigana	1
Udea lutealis	1
Epiblema uddmanniana	1
Catoptria falsella	1
Ancylis achatana	1
Epiblema trimaculana	1
Mompha propinquella	1

Total Species in 125w:			81
Total Species in 400w:			74
Total Species:			112
Total Moths in 125w:			270
Total Moths in 400w:			462
Total Moths:			732

My highlight, Scarce Silver Line

I trapped with the 125w in by far the best moth-ing  location I know, I trapped with the 400w just outside the house. If I had swapped trap positions, I'm sure the 400w would have had many more.

Among the list was one new macro for me, Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, and many new micros. Also had plenty of NFYs, such as Scarce Silver Line, Double Lobed, Svensson's Copper Underwing, True Lovers Knot, and probably a few I've missed.

Douglas.

Footmen

I've been studying the county list and have noticed that many footman species are very common, where as here in Middletown only two species are very common, that being Common Footman and Muslin Footman. In recent nights I've had 30-40 Common and around 10 Muslin, with no other footmen appearing.
I do get the odd Scarce, Dingy and Buff but at best only a few each night. Later in the year Dingy becomes a bit more common, sometimes getting into double figures each night.
Round-winged Muslin is one I've only recorded once.
(I haven't had Buff once this year, and only on one night, have I had Dingy. Scarce has popped up a few times)

In the county the picture seems quite different, with many of the other footmen species such as Dingy and Buff being nearly as common as Common Footman. I can't see any reason why there is such a difference, and, it might just be me, but I find this quite intriguing.

Douglas.

Cors Dyfi event report

At Cors Dyfi on Saturday evening we recorded 77 species.

The full report/species list is now on the website and can be found (along with the other 2011 event reports) here.

3 Good micro records

Last Friday night was very warm and I had a bumper catch, a new macro was V-Moth. Also has some nice micros:

Catoptria falsella

Catoptria falsella - first county record for over 30 years
Cochylis hybridella - Second county record (first at the recent Llanymynech Rocks event)
Hellinsia osteodactylus - Second county record (first at the recent Llanymynech Rocks event)

Cochylis hybridella

Hellinsia osteodactylus

Douglas.

Not much happening...

Haven't written much here recently, may be because I have not been catching many interesting ones.

Although over the last few nights I've had two NFMs:
Small Mottled Willow and Round-winged Muslin

Both nice moths, wish I'd had time to photograph them properly.

Cors Dyfi event

Dear All

A reminder that there is a MMG (Montgomeryshire Moth Group) event at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve Saturday 16th July, Map reference: SN704984.

Meet 9:00 pm. At reserve car park. Please contact me to check that the event is on, and for further directions if you need them. Please bring a torch.

Directions: The reserve is found on the right-hand side about 4 miles south west of Machynlleth on the A487.

Please come along and support this annual event where we are once again our Target Species is the Rosy Marsh Moth.

Peter

Llanymynech Rocks (it most certainly does!)

What a great night we had at Llanymynech on 2nd July!

A total 128 species were recorded including 5 new county records (pictured on the MMG website Stop Press).

The full report/species list is now on the website and can be found (along with the other 2011 event reports) here.