Netting at dusk

Yesterday between 8 and 9pm, I spent the hour standing on the patio with my net poised ready for any moths to fly in my general direction.

The weather was fairly warm, and very calm with variable amounts of cloud but mostly clear.

I find that the clear blue sky makes it easier to pick out any potential moths and to seperate them from the many flies that were zooming about.

Yes, zooming... that's another tip. Once you get your eye in and become accustomed to moths flight patterns, they are very different from flies, flying less erratically and generally in straight lines with a visible fluttering motion (the forewings and hindwings blurring but still just about visible) with flies you can't see that, as their wings appear to beat much faster.

I managed 9 moths in total, one every 10 minutes or so, patience certainly is the key... and good eyesight (thanks to vision express) and a fetching pair of pyjamas are also a must.

Of the 9 moths, 4 were new for the year showing just how effective this type of mothing can be, I urge you to try it one evening.

Two of the micros last night that I netted were quite interesting. One has been suggested on Twitter by Dave Appleton, that instead of Bryotropha affinis, it might be basaltinella.

 

The second is a plausible Trifurcula immundella, a Broom feeder and one i've documented in Middlesex as an adult bred through from a mine, the problem being that it isn't on the Cambridgeshire County list.

 

I've retained both for dissetion.

 

Moth garden list for 2023 stands at 137 species

Dusk Netting from 8pm until 9pm

 

Small Dusty Wave 2 [NFY]

Argyresthia trifasciata 1 [NFY]
Bryotropha sp 1 [TBC]

Coptotriche marginea 1 [NFY]

Swammerdamia pyrella 1 [NFY]

Trifurcula sp [TBC] 1
Monopis laevigella 2

Argyresthia trifasciata

Bryotropha sp

Coptotriche marginea

Monopis laevigella

Small Dusty Wave

Swammerdamia pyrella

Trifurcula sp