A few catches from early September

It's been extremely warm this week hasn't it! Unseasonal and records each day have been broken for the dates in September.

Subsequently i've still been running the trap most nights, but motivation to post has been subdued somewhat due to heat and tiredness.

Tonight we are set for another crazy +18c night, maybe not dropping below 20 degrees, but changes are on the way and all good things have yo come to an end.

So, to the moths and catches have been very good, egg trays have been full but because it's September, the variety is much less and is dominated by around 5 common species.

The huge winner at the moment is the Box-tree Moth, not good news for the local box bushes in people's gardens. I had over 80 on Wednesday night.

The new species for the year are slow to come by now, but when they turn up it's certainly worth the wait.

I'm still holding out for any decent migrants here, all i've had so far this week is a single Dark Sword-grass and several Udea ferrugalis.

So below are my new for year species for last week. 

 

Moth garden list for 2023 stands at 598 species

03/09/23 - Clifden Nonpareil aka Blue Underwing - The first of many possibly? Last year I had 14 examples between the 19th of September and 6th of November! Edit, as of the 10th i've had no more since.

04/09/23 - Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet - Confirmed as this species now, these are very similar to Red Twin-spot and genitalia dissection is advised because of the possibility of both forms in both species.

04/09/23 - Oak Processionary - Second garden record after one last July, a rather dark example and a bit beaten up.

 

04/09/23 - Rosy Rustic - The real sign of Autumn!

04/09/23 - Phyllonorycter maestingella - Disturbed several from my small Beech hedge in the garden, the mines are also evident, several came to light over the course of the week.

05/09/23 - Elachista alpinella - A lovely example of a marshy habitat Elachista turned up for the second year in a row here in my garden.

05/09/23 - Feathered Gothic - The stunning 'harnessed in white' Feathered Gothic was a welcome year tick and went missing last year.

05/09/23 - Phyllonorycter rajella - It's been a while since the last new micro moth species graced the garden (23rd of August), but this distinct Alder feeding Phyllonorycter was most welcome and probably expected at some point, as we are surrounded by many Alder trees.

 

05/09/23 - Phyllonorycter ulmifoliella - A fairly distinct Birch feeding tiny was the first for this year. Unfortunately it got itself wedged between the glass tube and the plastic stopper and as I took the lid off, it got squashed sadly. 

 

05/09/23 - Prays fraxinella/ruficeps - Not a common moth here in my garden as there isn't a great amount of Ash locally to me. A welcome tick and aggregated as this pair are DNA to separate, and not doable by any external features (plus the genitalia are far too similar to differentiate).

 

05/09/23 - Scrobipalpa atriplicella - Not one, but two new for garden micros last Tuesday night was excellent. The micros were certainly out in force and I potted up most of them before turning in at midnight. atriplicella superficially resembles Tuta absoluta, but it's the size that gives the biggest clue.

Elachista alpinella

Feathered Gothic

Prays fraxinella/ruficeps

Scrobipalpa atriplicella