Hello Moth-ers,

Happy New year to you all.

Just a reminder that the 2022 January Challenge kicks off on the 1^st. Jan. – so dust those traps off and fire them up.

This challenge can be either fairly easy or really difficult as the number of species on the wing in January is very limited and are influenced by the weather which definitely plays a big part, but the more number of nights trapped also increases your chance of completing a successful challenge. So go on, it’s all a bit of fun in what can be a gloomy month for moths, you never know, you just might complete the challenge. 

But before you start please cast you eyer over these simple rules below, thanks.

1) The Challenge is open to anyone, whether in Montgomeryshire or not.

2) Submitted records must be from one trap only and from a single site. Don’t have a trap – no problem, records other than from a trap e.g. daytime observations, moths to lit windows etc. can also count as long as they're from the same site.

3 Only adult moths count.

What’s require from you – I need: -

1) A list of species recorded throughout the month.

2) Total count for each species you’ve recorded.

3) Total number of nights you trapped on.

 Objectives.

The objective of the challenge is to record 10 macro species throughout January and if you would like to spice things up a little you can also try to record 5 micro species as well, which is far more difficult.

Another benefit of the challenge is that your county recorder will get a decent amount of winter records in what is usually a very under- recorded time of the year – so this is a win win scenario for all.

When to send your data.

If you like to be interactive with other recorders you can send me your data at weekly points throughout the month (when I ask for it) or you can send me all your data at the end of the challenge. Final results and weekly updates can be viewed on our Facebook page and our website blog.

Here is a link to our Facebook page so you can see what it’s like:- www.facebook.com/groups/montymoths?sorting_setting=CHRONOLOGICAL

Good luck.

Peter.

Lockdown species challenge - the final table

 

Hello Moth-ers – After ten months since its inception, the ‘Target species challenge’ has finally drawn to a close. 19 moth-ers took part with varying degrees of success, but this in the main will be down to how often each mother trapped. In general it wasn’t an easy challenge as the species added each month weren’t always too common, but this of course added that extra incentive to the task, to record each species.

Now for a few statistics from the challenge: -

• Of the 19 recorders who took part 18 managed to record at least one species.
• Out of a possible 18 species, the most species recorded was by Alan Sibley and Peter Williams with 10 species, followed Douglas Boyes with 8 species.
• A total of 29 points was possible if every species on the list was recorded and the top three were Alan Sibley with 16 points (so, well done Alan) Peter Williams with 14 points and Douglas Boyes with 11 points (I have to add in all fairness, I have to add, had Douglas not passed away, he would have probably topped the table, he loved a challenge, but of course we’ll never know for sure).
• Every species on the challenge was recorded except for the Vestal, but this was down to the poor autumn when very few migrant species were recorded due to the weather conditions.
• The most recorded species was the Shoulder Stripe, which 13 out of the 19 recorders manages to record.

Hopefully this challenge has given us all something to concentrate on during varying degrees of ‘lockdown’ throughout the year and has encouraged us all to do a little more moth trapping.

All being well I’ll be doing our annual ‘January Challenge’ (details here soon), which will be open to everyone.

Final ‘challenge’ table posted below.

Peter.