France Day 5 - 26/08/26

Another night trapping on the patio of our villa, and another extraordinary array of different species.

An led trap was also placed in the adjacent lower garden which was only run for 3 hours before bedtime (And did yield 2 species that didn't come to the other lights).

Species were slowing, a slightly cooler night of 18 degrees, but it was the breeze that was the problem, gusting every 20-30 seconds, and the moths struggled I think.

Still, who can complain with species like Loryma egregialis, Nola delicata & the first of the holidays Great Darts turning up. 

Huertasiella italogallicella was the best moth of the night, quite a scarce species in Southern France, and a cracking example that I managed to quickly pot up.

There was to be one last night on Thursday night, Friday night was out of the question as we had to leave the villa at 6:15am and it was still pitch black! 

 

24/08/26 - Felines Minervois - Herault Department - 40w Actinic & 30w UV LED lamp

 

Macro Moths

Bryophila vandalusiae

Channel Islands Pug - Eupithecia ultimaria

Great Dart - Agrotis bigramma

Leucania zeae

Mythimna sicula

Nola delicata 

Micro Moths

Bactra venosana

Clavigesta purdeyi

Ephestia kuehniella

Ethmia dodecea

Huertasiella italogallicella 

Loryma egregialis 

Pyrausta aurata

 

Leucania zeae

Loryma egregialis

Marbled Green - Bryopsis muralis

Mythimna sicula

Nola delicata

Bactra venosana

Channel Islands Pug - Eupithecia ultimaria

Ephestia kuehniella

Great Dart - Agrotis bigramma

Huertasiella italogallicella

 

Latest from the garden moth trap

A warmer day on Saturday night, followed by a rather chilly start to Sunday, so numbers weren't great.

New ones are really struggling now, but at least on this occasion there was still one new species, the micro Aethes smeathmanniana.

A second Vestal in a week was notewoorthy, a similar brown example, in fact I had to check to see if it wasn't just a recapture, lucky not the case.

A lateish Light Emerald was nice, especially as it seemed to be sporting a red fringe, something that I have never seen in this species before!

The return of a Mottled Rustic was good to see, a species that was once a really common moth, not so much these days.

A slightly a-typical Square-spot Rustic was worth a quick snap of.

Not much to report lately.

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 681 species 

 

05/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Micro Moths

Aethes smeathmanniana 1 [NFY]

Vestal

Aethes smeathmanniana

Light Emerald

Mottled Rustic

Square-spot Rustic

 

France Day 4 - 25/08/26

A really warm day followed the slightly cooler night of Monday, with highs of 31 degrees and a real humid feel to the day.

Early morning we made tracks up into a local nature reserve. There were very few moths due to the wind, but plenty of Grayling species and Browns struggling to make level flight in the gusts. 

 

By nightfall the wind had abated and the lights were busy with moths.

 

The species were absolutely incredible, and one of the most diverse species list so far during the holiday was witnessed.

 

The moths, well where do I start.

 

There were several extremely scarce moths potted up.

 

Agriphila brioniellus/paleatella was the first region for the Herault region in 11 years, last seen West of Montpellier on the 9th of September 2015.

The name is confusing and there seems to be a debate about the synonym that is currently being listed as an absolute synonym. Waaay above my pay grade I'm afraid! 

 

Hoyosia codeti, an unusual looking species much like the Festoon & Triangle moths that we get back home, to get two and both a male & female was rather spectacular.

To date, it is only found in 3 regions of France, and with just 49 records for the whole of France, it certainly was exciting to record them at our villa.

 

A rather distinct pyralid proved some initial major headaches, and sourcing help from others, we finally settled on Pseudacrobasis tergestella, another quite scarce species, an unusual moth with it's black raised scale tufts, much like Acrobasis tumidana, but in grey scale format!

 

Trichophaga bipartitella was one of my favourites of the night, initially thinking it was my first Tapestry Moth (Trichophaga tapetzella), then not realising that there was a second possible species, which it has turned out to be, so it seems like I still need to see a Tapestry Moth after all!

 

Uncinus obductellus was a moth I only recently ticked off down the road at Wicken Fen, a site first and a pyralid that seems to be spreading quite rapidly. In fact one was reported to me only yesterday from my village, Leslie popped round with said moth and it is indeed a lovely specimen of Uncinus obductellus.

In France it has a hugely scattered distribution. For the Herault department, it is only the 2nd record ever, and was last seen in 2022. 

 

All that lot and there were so many other cool moths, too many to write up individually about so I will let the list and photos do the rest of the talking. 

 

 

24/08/26 - Felines Minervois - Herault Department - 40w Actinic & 30w UV LED lamp

 

Macro Moths

Apaidia mesogona

Barrett's Marbled Coronet - Conisania andalusica

Hoyosia codeti 

Idaea eugeniata

Itame vincularia

Metachrostis velox 

Small Black Arches - Meganola strigula 

Zebeeba falsalis 

Micro Moths

Acrolepiopsis vesperella

Agdistis sp

Agriphila brioniellus/paleatella

Apodia bifractella 

Blastobasis glandulella

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Clepsis consimilana

Euzophera pinguis

Homoeosoma sinuella

Notocelia incarnatana

Pempelia palumbella

Pseudacrobasis tergestella

Pseudococcyx tessulatana 

Trichophaga bipartitella

Uncinus obductella 

 

Zebeeba falsalis

Acrolepiopsis vesperella

Agriphila brioniellus/paleatella

Hoyosia codeti

Itame vincularia

Notocelia incarnatana

Pseudacrobasis tergestella

Pseudococcyx tessulatana

Trichophaga bipartitella

Uncinus obductella

 

A couple of back to back migrants

A quick post on back to back catches made on the 3rd and 4th of September.

Less moths recently as temperatures dip to around 12 degrees, not tragic but cool for this time of year in the east.

It was certainly very nice to score a Vestal on Thursday night and a shimmering white Palpita vitrealis on Friday night.

Flounced Rustic and Straw Underwing are still battling for top spot, but there are a few new contenders who's numbers are increasing, Square-spot Rustic and Vine's Rustic are getting more regular, as are Large Yellow Underwing, which is a much less common species in my garden these days.

The weather turned quite hot today for one day only, could be a good night!

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 680 species 

 

03/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

 

Macro Moths

Vestal 1 [NFY]

04/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Micro Moths

Palpita vitrealis 1 [NFY]

Vestal

Palpita vitrealis

Super start to September

On the 2nd I ran my first trap for the month of September. 

I stayed up fairly late, and rose early enough to limit escapees. 74 species was the grand total. That must be a record for September here in my garden, I'm sure of it.

There were two new macro moths for the year making it the best year on record, species-wise at least, with 678 species logged so far in 2026.

The two new ones were Cypress Pug & Orange Sallow, the latter I missed out on last year.

Clancy's Rustic was back, with 3 coming to the trap overnight, not seen since mid-June. 

A second garden record of Crocidosema plebejana was most welcome, both from this year. 

Drinker was rather late, I don't see many in September.

Cooler nights were coming up, a real feeling of Autumn in the mornings. 

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 678 species 

 

02/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

 

Macro Moths

Cypress Pug 2 [NFY] 
Orange Sallow 1 [NFY]
Angle Shades 
Blue Underwing 
Cabbage Moth 
Centre-barred Sallow 
Clancy's Rustic 
Delicate 
Double-striped Pug 
Drinker 
Dusky Thorn 
Flounced Rustic 
Frosted Orange
Garden Carpet 
Large Yellow Underwing 
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
L-album Wainscot 
Lime-speck Pug 
Mouse Moth 
Nutmeg
Pale Mottled Willow 
Pebble Hook-tip 
Setaceous Hebrew Character 
Shuttle-shaped Dart 
Silver Y 
Spectacle
Small Blood-vein 
Small Dusty Wave
Small Ranunculus 
Snout 
Straw Underwing 
Square-spot Rustic 
Tawny-speckled Pug 
Toadflax Pug 
Treble-bar 
Turnip Moth 
Vine's Rustic 
Yellow Shell 
White-point 
Willow Beauty 

Micro Moths

Achroia grisella 
Agriphila geniculea 
Agriphila tristella 
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 
Ancylosis oblitella 
Aproaerema anthyllidella 
Archips podana 
Cameraria ohridella 
Celypha lacunana 
Celypha striana 
Clavigesta purdeyi 
Crocidosema plebejana 
Cydalima perspectalis 
Cydia splendana 
Emmelina monodactyla 
Epiphyas postvittana 
Galleria mellonella 
Grapholita funebrana 
Hofmannophila pseudospretella 
Hypsopyqgia costalis 
Monopis crocicapitella 
Monopis weaverella 
Neocochylis atricapitana 
Neocochylis molliculana 
Nomophila noctuella 
Pandemis corylana 
Parapoynx stratiotata 
Paraswammerdamia nebulella 
Plutella xylostella 
Pyrausta aurata 
Scrobipalpa ocellatella 
Udea ferrugalis 
Yponomeuta evonynella

Orange Sallow

Achroia grisella

Aproaerema anthyllidella

Clancy's Rustic

Crocidosema plebejana

Cypress Pug

Drinker

 

France Day 3 - 24/08/26

Another fantastic night, although less moths and species as a result of a huge storm we experienced early evening, and we just had to be out in the hire car getting supplies in from a nearby supermarche!

Luckily we were only 6 miles away, 6 miles too far... driving in over 60mph gusts and torrential rain, debris was raining down on the car.

By late evening it looked like we hadn't any raining at all! But clear skies and a howling wind still, knocked the numbers down a bit.

But who could complain about the first Tiger Moth species of the night (And was to be the only Tiger Moth species of the trip) two stunning Cymbalophora pudica. Over the next few nights they kept returning in low numbers.

There were some lovely micros, some quite scarce such as the Tineidae Myrmecozela ataxella. An incredibly bright Etiella zinckenella was very photogenic.

Stemmatophora rungsi was the best moth, last seen in the Herault department in 2023.

Another warm day was expected on Tuesday and hopefully some lovely new moths overnight.

 

24/08/26 - Felines Minervois - Herault Department - 40w Actinic & 30w UV LED lamp

 

Macro Moths

Cryphia pallida

Cymbalophora pudica

Oak Eggar - Lasiocampa quercus

Pine Hawk-moth - Sphinx pinastri

Scopula marginepunctata

Micro Moths

Achyra nudalis 

Ancylosis cinnamomella

Duponchelia fovealis

Etiella zinckenella

Myrmecozela ataxella

Pediasia contaminella 

Stemmatophora rungsi

Tinea basifasciella 

 

Stemmatophora rungsi

Achyra nudalis

Ancylosis cinnamomella

Cryphia pallida

Cymbalophora pudica

Duponchelia fovealis

Etiella zinckenella

Myrmecozela ataxella

Scopula marginepunctata

 

 

 

France Day 2 - 23/08/26

Another really productive night out on the side patio of our villa.

Running twin 40w Actinic vane setups hanging from bungees, the moths came pouring in, not huge numbers, but the variety was staggering and there were so many different species from the previous night.

 

There were several regionally scarce species as well, and some real headaches for identification, so much so, that I had to lump several species together for fear of being incorrect!

 

The night was once again another warm one, with lows of 21 degrees at 5am. Being late August, it didn't really get light until half 6, so there was plenty of time to pot up the moths from the walls and surrounding floor tiles.

The local Lizards and Geckos, after just one night had already cottoned on to my activities! I guess several moths succumbed to their appetite. 

This was also the first night that I noticed bats racing up and down the pool and across the lights.

 

It's always interesting to see regional forms of our common moths, there were several Clays attracted to the lamps, a few looked rather unusual indeed.

 

One of my favourites was a lovely dainty plume species, Alucita palodactyla, and a rather unusual looking Waved Black proved to be the southern speciality Parascotia nisseni. 

 

Rarest moth was probably the Agonopterix nodiflorella, keyed out on the palps and forewing markings. But I can't be 100% unfortunately.  

 

23/08/26 - Felines Minervois - Herault Department - 40w Actinic & 30w UV LED lamp

 

Macro Moths

Clay - Mythimna ferrago

Dorset Cream Wave - Stegania trimaculata

Eublemma pura

Hoary Footman - Eilema caniola

Horse Chestnut Moth - Pachycnemia hippocastanaria

Idaea cf contiguaria

Middle Lace Border - Scopula decorata

Pale-shouldered Cloud - Chloantha hyperici

Parascotia nisseni 

Scopula submutata

Small Waved Umber - Horisme vitalbata 

White-speck - Mythimna unipuncta

 

Micro Moths

Acrobasis fallouella 

Acrobasis legatea

Agonopterix cf nodiflorella

Alucita palodactyla 

Antigastra catalaunalis

Apatema mediopallidum 

Aristotelia decoratella

Aproaerema cf patruella 

Blastobasis glandulella 

Dolicharthria punctalis

Dysspastus cf fallax

Elachista dispunctella

Emmelina monodactyla

Epinotia thapsiana 

Epischnia cf asteris illotella

Hypsopygia incarnatalis

Laodamia combustella

Lecithocera nigrana 

Nepticulidae sp

Pyroderces argyrogrammos 

Symmocoides oxybiella

Pale-shouldered Cloud - Chloantha hyperici

Parascotia nisseni

Scopula submutata

Acrobasis fallouella

Acrobasis legatea

Agonopterix cf nodiflorella

Alucita palodactyla

Apatema mediopallidum

Aristotelia decoratella

Dolicharthria punctalis

Epinotia thapsiana

Horse Chestnut Moth - Pachycnemia hippocastanaria

Hypsopygia incarnatalis

Laodamia combustella