All was set up & the lights were on by the time Mark & I arrived in the gardens, behind the Plas in Machynlleth. And there were already a number of people there eager for the traps to start yielding their moths. The first record was a Brimstone Moth, and in face it was one of the more numerous moths of the night.
As well as moths there was a good showing by other invertebrates, including some magnificent crane flies, lots of pesky caddis flies pretending to be moths, and a very handsome beetle. One keen person managed to pot up a sleeping Large White Butterfly as well.
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| Crane fly - (photo by Fern Towers) |
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| Brimstone Moths (photo by Fern Towers) |
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| A surprise visitor to the light sheet - Peter Williams (photo Fern Towers) |
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| Nicrophorus sp. Beetle (photo by Fern Towers) |
We had a very rare but welcome sighting of the county moth recorder, Peter Williams. It was a great pleasure to see him at an event again, and it was lovely to be able to hand the pots of moths to him for an instant ID. Especially as I managed to completely mis-identify the Udea ferrugalis (Rusty-dot Pearl) as a Straw Dot! In my defence the light wasn't very good.....
Phil was kept very busy through the night, taking groups round to all the traps. He also stayed long after the last of us had started to head home. Many thanks to him for organising and setting up an excellent night, and to Fern Towers for allowing Montgomeryshire Moth Group to trap in the gardens. It is always a very warm welcome there. In total we trapped 15 macros & 6 micros (plus one butterfly). The full list of moths can be found here.
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| Black Rustic (photo by Phil McGregor) |
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| Copper Underwing Agg. (photo by Phil McGregor) |
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| Silver Y (photo by Phil McGregor) |
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| Udea ferrugalis (photo by Phil McGregor) |
