Silky Wainscot

We had a couple of fairly standard nights in the Moth trap over the weekend. Saturday had the most moths in the trap and included a new on to me, the Silky Wainscot – Not rare in the county, but not common either just just a smattering of records.

Silky Wainscot

The full list from Saturday night was:

• 1x Mottled Rustic
• 2x Small Seraphim
• 47x Lackey
• 6x Dark Acrhes
• 2x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 18x Heart and Dart
• 5x Buff Ermine
• 1x White Ermine
• 3x Oligia sp.
• 1x Lime-speck Pug
• 1x Middle-barred Minor
• 1x Small Magpie
• 4x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1x Bright-line Brown-eye
• 5x Flame
• 2x Garden Tiger
• 1x Heart and Club
• 1x Silver-ground Carpet
• 1x Purple Bar
• 1x Grey Pug
• 1x Broom
• 1x Light Emerald
• 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 1x Large Yellow Underwing
• 2x Flame Shoulder
• 1x Bordered Sallow
• 1x Common Marbled Carpet
• 1x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Dusky Brocade
• 1x Silky Wainscot*

It was a busy night for the moth trap last night. The temperature still dropped to 8ºC though which was lower than I was expecting so it wasn’t a record night as far as number were concerned. There were a few new species for the garden list though and the Dark Arches are on the increase.

• 4x Buff Ermine
• 14x Lackey
• 2x Buff Tip
• 10x Flame
• 1x Silver-ground Carpet
• 2x Wormwood Pug
• 2x Shaded Pug
• 2x Garden Tiger
• 1x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 17x Heart and Dart
• 1x Shears
• 1x Knot Grass
• 3x Grey Pug
• 2x White Ermine
• 6x Oiligia sp.
• 4x Heart and Club
• 2x Archers Dart
• 1x Riband Wave
• 1x Small Seraphim
• 1x Small Magpie
• 16x Dark Arches
• 2x Bright-line Brown-Eye
• 1x Pale-shouldered Brocade
• 1x Dusky Brocade
• 6x Flame Shoulder
• 2x Middle-barred Minor
• 3x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1x Large Yellow Underwing
• 2x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 2x Broom
• 2x Gold Spot
• 1x Green Carpet
• 1x Common Wainscot*
• 1x Grey/Dark Dagger agg.*
• 1x Common Carpet
• 1x White Colon*
• 1x Double-striped Pug
• 1x Beautiful Brocade* (Still awaiting ID confirmation on this one)

The White Colon is a fairly uncommon moth, mainly occurring in coastal dune systems and is considered ‘Nationally Scarce B’ according to the national status designated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. This means that it isn’t endangered, vulnerable or rare but is none-the-less uncommon in Great Britain and are thought to occur in between 31 and 100 10 km squares of the National Grid. It isn’t unexpected to find it here though as we do live within a dune system.

Another good night for the moth trap. Light winds and temperatures held up with a minimum of 9.6ºC so the trap was full this morning. Lots of micro moths but I’m not taking too much notice of those at the moment as I’m trying to familiarise myself with the macro moths first, but some of the micros last night were impressive including an iridescent yellow one.

Here’s the list of macros:

• 4x Yellow Shell
• 13x Lackey
• 5x Oligia sp.
• 3x Wormwood Pug
• 1x Silver-ground Carpet
• 1x Eyed Hawkmoth
• 1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 12x Heart and Dart
• 2x White Ermine
• 2x Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet
• 2x Common Marbled Carpet
• 1x Common Pug
• 2x Foxglove Pug
• 4x Grey Pug
• 1x Small Magpie
• 1x Large Yellow Underwing
• 2x Heart and Club
• 9x Dark Arches
• 1x Broom
• 1x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Purple Bar
• 1x Bright-line Brown-eye
• 1x Flame Shoulder
• 1x Small Square Spot
• 1x Buff Ermine
• 1x Shears
• 1x Bordered Sallow
• 1x Willow Beauty
• 1x Light Emerald*
• 1x Shaded Pug
• 2x Dusky Brocade
• 1x Brussels Lace*
• 1x Clay*
• 1x Middle-barred Minor

Phew – 83 moths, 34 species and 3 new to me. Managed to get a photo of the Yellow Shell today as well.

As it was Father’s Day on Sunday and my present from Morgan was a collection of moth pots to allow me to store and identify the moths a little easier I put the trap out again on Saturday Night.

When we returned from out Nightjar and Glow Worm Walk, Morgan and I had a little look at the trap and all was well, there were plenty of moths fluttering around, but temperatures soon dropped to 4ºC so this morning there weren’t quite as many moths in the trap as expected.

There was still 26 moths from 12 different species though, with two new species for us: a Willow Beauty and an impressive Garden Tiger.

• 5x Lackey Moth
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1x Buff Tip
• 6x Dark Arches
• 3x Flame Shoulder
• 6x Heart and Dart
• 1x Archers Dart
• 2x Heart and Club
• 1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 1x Garden Tiger*
• 1x Willow Beauty*

Stats

2010

Number of species: 117

Moths: 1238

All time

Number of species: 134

Moths: 1437

Not a bad night last night in the moth trap. Light winds, a tiny bit of rain and temperatures down to 8ºC. There was plenty in the trap and I went through the contents with a few people from the Ceredigion Moth Group at a meeting we had today (I’ll blog about that separately).

There was quite a different collection of moths in the trap compared to last time I put it out with 10, possibly 11 new garden records for me:

• 1x Bordered Sallow*
• 2x Large Yellow Underwing
• 1x Mottled Rustic*
• 1x Yellow Shell*
• 8x Lackey*
• 11x Heart and Dart
• 1x Green Carpet
• 4x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Angle Shades
• 1x Silver Y
• 1x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Middle-barred Minor
• 1x Flame
• 3x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 2x Oligia sp.
• 1x Ling Pug*
• 1x Wormwood Pug*
• 8x Dark Arches
• 2x Shaded Pug
• 4x Flame Shoulder
• 1x Marbled Carpet
• 1x Archers Dart*
• 1x Brown Rustic
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 3x Pale-shouldered Brocade
• 1x Small Square Spot
• 1x Foxglove Pug
• 1x Small Seraphim
• 3x Broom
• 1x Pale Mottled Willow*
• 1x Striped Wainscot
• 1x Gold Spot
• 1x Heart and Club
• 1x Dusky Brocade

Here are some of the new ones, although I didn’t get photos of all of them today.

Plans are a foot for a little meet up of the Ceredigion Moth Group on Saturday.

It’s all fairly informal, just a get together to go through the contents of a couple of traps. Hopefully one from the dunes, one from the bog and my trap from the garden here. After that, we’ll probably have a little walk through the dunes to see if we can spot any day-flying moths, before heading off for a coffee or possibly a beer.

Feel free to come along if you’re interested in moth-recording, or fancy getting started. We’ll be meeting at the Nature Reserve Visitor Centre in the dunes at 10am. The weather looks quite good at the moment so there should be plenty to see in the traps.

We might see some Scarlet tigers and its been a good year for large heath butt too, so plenty to look out for. Bring boots and a butty.

We put the moth trap out a couple of times over the weekend and got quite a few moths in the trap, but nothing new. The average seems to be around about 60-80 moths at the moment from approximately 25 species.

Last night looked like a good night so I put the trap out again and this time did turn up a few new species for the garden list. Total catch was:

• 3x Oligia sp.
• 2x Green Carpet
• 10x Flame Shoulder
• 2x Treble Lines
• 4x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 3x Common Marbled Carpet
• 13x Heart and Dart
• 5x Dark Arches
• 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 2x Large Yellow Underwing
• 4x Dusky Brocade
• 1x Small Magpie
• 1x Flame
• 1x Shark
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 5x Small Square Spot
• 1x Middle-barred Minor
• 1x Brown Rustic
• 1x Buff Tip
• 1x Silver Y
• 1x Clouded Silver
• 1x Heart and Club*
• 1x Riband Wave*
• 1x Wormwood Pug
• 1x Grey Pug

According to the ‘Moths of Ceredigion; by Adrian Fowles – which is admittedly a little out of date now, the Heart and Club isn’t that common in this area:

“Rare in Ceredigion with just eight specimens recorded since the Heart and Club was first taken, at Llanbadarn, in 1937. Apart from a singleton at Trawscoed all other records are from coastal districts, though the species has not yet been identified from Ynyslas which is unusual as this is primarily an inhabitant of dune systems in Wales”

Looks as though that needs revising as I’ve now recorded one from Ynyslas.

I moved the moth trap away from the Lilac last night and had a much more manageable catch which didn’t take long to go through:

• 2x White Ermine
• 1x Eyed Hawkmoth
• 1x Oligia sp.
• 2x Common Marbled Carpet
• 2x Broom Moth
• 3x Heart and Dart
• 12x Flame Shoulder
• 3x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 10x Small Square-spot
• 2x Small Magpie
• 1x Cinnabar
• 2x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 1x Brown Rustic
• 1x Treble Lines
• 1x Shore Wainscot*
• 1x Dark Arches*
• 2x Common Pug
• 1x Shaded Pug
• 1x Grey Pug*

It looks as though it could be a good weekend for the moths so I may well move the trap back to the lilac and be prepared for a huge catch the next day.

There were only a couple of new species last night, the Dark Arches which is a very common moth and the Shore Wainscot which is only found in coastal areas with dunes so isn’t so common. The Shore Wainscot probably doesn’t show up in many people’s gardens so it was nice to get this one.

We were going to go to the RSPB reserve at Ynyshir last night for a ‘Nightjars and Glow-worms’ walk, but decided not to at the last minute so instead I put the moth trap out again. I don’t normally trap on consecutive nights as I like to make sure I give the moths a chance to do moth-like things now and then, but as the conditions were perfect I thought I’d make an exception.

It turned out to be the busiest night so far and it was just complete madness stood out by the trap at midnight. There were moths coming from all directions. The trap was buzzing and the sheet was covered in moths. There were plenty that I’d never seen before, some of which I didn’t manage to see properly before they got away. It is surprising just how many moths there are, and how many of them never actually enter the trap. Despite this, there were over 100 in the trap this morning. Here’s the full list. As usual, the new ones are marked with an asterix and I shall include a photo of them.

• 1x Clouded Silver*
• 1x Barred Umber*
• 2x Common Marbled Carpet
• 3x Wormwood Pug
• 1x Water Carpet
• 1x Small Seraphim*
• 9x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Common Swift
• 6x Purple Bar
• 5x Gold Spot
• 2x Buff Tip
• 2x Cinnabar
• 3x Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet
• 19x Heart and Dart
• 1x Buff Ermine
• 2x Silver-ground Carpet
• 3x White Ermine
• 2x Shears
• 12x Flame Shoulder
• 7x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 14x Small Square Spot
• 3x Oligia sp.
• 7x Treble Lines
• 2x Wormwood Pug
• 1x Red Twin-spot Carpet
• 3x Common Pug
• 1x Garden Carpet
• 2x Rustic Shoulder Knot
• 1x Tawny Shears
• 2x Pebble Prominent
• 2x Shark*
• 1x Scorched Wing*
• 2x Common Carpet
• 2x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
• 2x Dusky Brocade
• 1x Small Magpie
• 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle
• 3x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Alder Moth
• 1x Poplar Hawkmoth
• 1x Dark Sword-grass
• 5x Silver Y
• 1x Brown Rustic
• 1x Broom Moth
• 1x Pale-shouldered Brocade
• 2x Shaded Pug

Inside the Trap

It’s amazing just how many moths there are in the garden. I went to put the moth trap out last night at dusk and the Lilac was completely covered in moths. I couldn’t tell what species they all were as they were on the wing, but there were several different species and at least 5 of them on that one plant.

Needless to say it was a good catch again when I opened the trap with Morgan this morning and a few more species to add to the list

• 1x Scalloped Hazel*
• 5x Silver Y
• 4x Elephant Hawkmoth
• 2x Sallow Kitten
• 10x Heart and Dart
• 2x Gold Spot
• 2x Small Magpie
• 4x Purple Bar
• 1x Pale Prominent*
• 1x Flame*
• 1x Cinnabar
• 6x Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet
• 1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
• 3x Garden Carpet
• 7x Small Sqaure-spot
• 1x Shears
• 1x Brown Silver-line
• 5x Treble Lines
• 2x Buff Tip
• 1x Tawny Shears
• 1x Lime-speck Pug*
• 2x Small Elephant Hawkmoth
• 1x Rustic Shoulder-knot
• 6x Flame Shoulder
• 1x Brown Rustic
• 2x Gold Spot
• 1x Knot Grass*
• 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1x Buff Ermine*
• 1x Poplar Kitten*
• 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle*
• 1x Dusky Brocade*
• 2x Pebble Prominent

Not a bad catch, but considering the number on the Lilac I thought there might be more. There were also quite a few different micro moths in the trap, but I thought I had enough on my plate identifying the macros, so ignored the micros today. All in all, 81 moths, 38 different species and 9 new garden records.