October Moths – This Weeks Moth Trapping
3rd October 2009
Our second night of Moth Trapping. It started out really windy so I lashed the trap to a breeze-block to stop it from blowing away. Not ideal mothing conditions, and that was further compounded by a full moon. The wind was forecast to ease overnight though so I was still hoping for a catch.
I the end, the wind did gradually ease from around 25 knots NW to 5-10 knots. The temperature in the garden remained pretty steady and mild at 12ºC and there was no rain.
And in the morning we had six moths:
- 3 x Lunar Underwing
- 2 x Black Rustic
- 1 x Square Spot Rustic *
5th October 2009
It looked like a lovely evening, full moon, some clouds and barely any wind, but a little cool at around 10ºC and with rain forecast for later. We therefore put the trap out at dusk, but I retrieved it at around 10pm before the rain came. I’m glad I did as it started pouring down at around 2am and by 6am we had already had 11 mm of rain!
Still, there were a few moths in the trap despite the short time that the trap was out.
- 2x Common Marbled Carpet *
- 1x Lunar Underwing
- 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
- 1x Blair’s Shoulder Knot *
- 1x Epiphyas postvittana (Light Brown Apple Moth)
7th October 2009
A cold night with temperatures down to 2.1ºC, but light winds and no rain.
- 5x Lunar Underwing
9th October 2009
A very mild night with temperatures only dropping to 13.7ºC. Quite wet to start with but it cleared later and winds were relatively light, with a maximum gust of 17.2 knots. Perfect for moth-trapping!
- 1x Brimstone Moth *
- 6x Black Rustic
- 1x Gold Spot *
- 3x Silver Y
- 1x Large Yellow Underwing *
- 2x Red Line Quaker
- 7x Setaceous Hebrew Character
- 16x Lunar Underwing
- 1x Beaded Chestnut *
- 1x Large Wainscot *
- 1x Shuttle-shaped dart *
- 1x Common Marbled Carpet
- 4x Featherd Ranunculus
- 4x Spruce Carpet? *
Wow! what a night! It took a while to go through that lot.
Totals so far for October
Nights Trapping: 4
- Lunar Underwing x 25
- Black Rustic x 8
- Square Spot Rustic x 1
- Setaceous Hebrew Character x8
- Blair’s Shoulder Knot x1
- Light Brown Apple moth x1
- Gold Spot x1
- Brimstone Moth x1
- Silver Y x3
- Large Yellow Underwing x1
- Red Line Quaker x2
- Beaded Chestnut x1
- Large Wainsscot x1
- Shuttle-shaped Dart x1
- Common Marbled Carpet x1
- Spruce Carpet x4
- Feathered Ranunculus x5
-
- Spruce Carpet
-
- Setaceous Hebrew Character
-
- Red Line Quaker
-
- Common Marbled Carpet
-
- Light Brown Apple Moth
-
- Feathered Ranunculus
-
- ?
-
- Brimstone Moth
-
- Shuttle-shaped Dart
-
- Silver Y
-
- Large Wainscot
-
- Black Rustic
-
- Lunar Underwing
-
- Gold spot
-
- Beaded Chestnut
-
- Large Yellow Underwing
* = New species for me (not difficult at the moment as I’m very new to this!)
4 Responses
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I didn’t realise there were so many different types of moth. Is your area particularly good for them.
Hi Mark,
Nor did I until recently. I’m not sure if Borth and Ynyslas are particularly good. I wouldn’t imagine so as there isn’t a huge variety of habitats nearby. We probably do gt some fairly specialised moths though, and there is definitely at least one species (The Rosy Marsh Moth) that is very rare and found nearby. Doubt we’ll ever get one of those in the trap though.
I’m still new to this myself, but there is supposed to be around 900 species of macro moth that can be found in the UK.
Al.
Cool, I’m sure your list will grow. Do you get them at all times of the year?
Again, I’m new to this, but yes, it does seem as though there are moths about throughout the year. Most species are only around for a couple of months so the species caught in a trap will vary throughout the year. The winter months are a little quieter as well… I’m hoping to get used to identifying them now while catches are fairly small so that I’m ready for the onslaught of new speices in the Spring and Summer.
Al.