Saturday 29 June 2013

Ochrwyth quarry - 29 June

Glorious sunshine, so I ventured out with a net to see what was about.  The local limestone quarry had plenty of flowering Birdsfoot trefoil and Wild thyme but not a great deal feeding on it other than bumblebees.  As for butterflies there were some 10+ Small Heath, but otherwise single Large and Small White and Speckled Wood. Just four species of moths: Nettle-tap; Crambus pratella, Chrysoteuchia culmella and best of all, Pyrausta cingulata.    
Pyrausta cingulata

Thursday 27 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 25 June

On Tuesday night there was a good catch with 123 moths of 44 species including FFY: Green Silver-lines; Grey Arches; Clouded Border; Poplar Hawkmoth; Smokey Wainscot; Udea olivalis; Pandemis cinnaomeana; Epinotia bilunana; and, Eudonia mercurella.  Other species of interest included, Lobster Moth; Diamond-back Moth; Coronet; Pebble Hook-tip; Scorched Wing; and, Elephant Hawkmoth.

The Coronet

Green Silver-lines

Saturday 22 June 2013

Black Rock - 21 June

A second visit was made to the Black Rock picnic site to help fill in the gaps in local knowledge of this part of Monmouthshire.  The final catch for the night was 65 moths of 28 species including:  Elephant Hawkmoth (x5); Flame Shoulder (x7); Flame Carpet (x2); Broken-barred Carpet; Green Carpet; Silver Ground Carpet; Common Marbled Carpet (x5); Clouded Silver; Ingrailed Clay (x2); Heart & Dart; Shuttle-shaped Dart; Straw Dot (x3); Light Emerald (x3); Middle-barred Minor (x3); Marbled Minor (x2); Udea olivalis; Yellow Shell; Willow Beauty; Buff Ermine; Small Fan-foot; Set. Hebrew Character; Small Phoenix; Common Pug; Nettle Tap; Plum Tortrix and the only migrant for the night, a single Silver Y.  Kevin with net in hand, also worked the saltmarsh  immediately to the east of the picnic site and recorded 12 moths of 8 species including Blood Vein.  

Thanks to Monmouthshire County for access to the site and to Kevin, Sheila, Fiona and Beth for working the traps.
   

Friday 21 June 2013

Home Farm, Caerleon - 21st June 2013


Few moths in the trap last night.  However there was a NFG, this rather superb Beautiful Golden Y


Thursday 20 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 17th & 18th June

Two nights of running the MV in different gardens at Ochrwyth produced catches of 71 moths of 31 species and 88 moths of 38 species.  NFY on 17th were: Straw Dot; Lobster Moth; Elephant Hawkmoth; Small Fan-foot; Small Yellow Wave; and, Middle-barred Minor.  Then on 18th: Buff Arches; Treble Lines; Buff-tip; Blood-vein; Tinea semifulvella; and, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana.

Buff-tip
Blood-vein


Home Farm, Caerleon


High lights from the last few days have included:

10th June
Elephant Hawkmoth
Common Wave
Buff-tip
Mottled Beauty

18th June
Silver Y - day time sighting in the garden

19th June
Pale Mottled Willow
Mottled Rustic
Riband Wave

20th June
Willow Beauty [including a completely black winged individual]
Large Yellow Underwing x2
Small Square Spot


Small Clouded Brindle [NFG]


Monday 17 June 2013

Seaview Moths Sunday 16th June

Thank goodness the wind has died down a bit so we were able to put out the trap last night. Thirty-six moths were trapped from 17 species. No less than 10 small square spot moths! New for us this year were a cream spot tiger, silver Y, middle barred minor (3), straw dot, small china mark, and bee moth.


Wednesday 12 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 11 June

There were some heavy rain showers on Tuesday night, but that didn't prevent an excellent catch.  The total was 152 moths of 52 species; by far the best catch of the year so far.  An Eyed Hawkmoth was NFY, but also new for the garden - well over due.  Also NFY were: Small Magpie; Foxglove Pug; Purple Bar; Latticed Heath; Marbled White Spot; Satin Lutestring (x2); Beautiful Golden Y; Broad-barred White; and, Small Angle Shades.
Eyed Hawkmoth

Monday 10 June 2013

Seaview Moths 9th June





Not a huge number of moths in the trap, 19 moths from 12 species. Several wing fragments were lying at the bottom of the trap which I expect was due to predation by bats. Burnished brass seem to be doing well, there were six in the trap as well as a poplar hawkmoth and  a first (for us) Lime hawkmoth. This early Light Arches was very fine.

Sunday 9 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 8 June

A reasonable catch last night with 59 moths of 33 species. NFY were Peach Blossom (x2); Bright-line Brown-eye; Riband Wave (x3); and, Eulia ministrana.

Cinnabar Moth, Peacock and x6 Common Blue at Porton this afternoon.
Eulia ministrana

Saturday 8 June 2013

Skenfrith - 7 June

As part of targeting areas of the County where there are few records, a trip was made to Skenfrith village and St Bridget's churchyard.  The night produced 46 moths of 26 species:

Green Carpet (x7)                                        Alder Kitten
Sandy Carpet                                               Heart & Dart
Flame Carpet (x4)                                        Common Pug (x3)
Common Carpet                                           Brimstone (x3)
Broken-barred Carpet                                  Common White Wave
Clouded Magpie                                           Nut-tree Tussock
Bee Moth (x2)                                              Scalloped Hazel
Flame Shoulder (x5)                                     Coxcomb Prominent
Pale Tussock                                                Swallow Prominent
Alder Moth (x2)                                           Pebble Prominent
Lobster Moth                                               Barred Umber
White Ermine                                               Small Quaker
Spectacle                                                     Buttoned Snout

Many thanks to Jean Prosser of St Bridget's for allowing access to the church grounds and for alerting neighbours and to Sheila, Fiona and Beth who helped on the night.  

Barred Umber

St Bridget's at Skenfrith

Friday 7 June 2013

Home Farm, Caerleon

NFY from last nights catch were Straw Dot, Bright Line Brown Eye and Setaceous Hebrew Character

Thursday 6 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 4 June

I'm a bit late in posting this, but Tuesday night was very productive with 92 moths of 40 species.  NFY were: White Ermine; Clouded Silver; Peppered Moth; Scorched Wing; Barred Hook-tip; Bee Moth; Silver Ground Carpet; Dingy Shell; Diamond-back Moth; Wormwood Pug and Grey Birch.

Scorched Wing

Dingy Shell
 

Home Farm, Caerleon


Flame Carpet and a slightly worn Poplar Hawkmoth were NFY last night.

Water Carpet from last night
Seaview Moths 5th June

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Last night was a rather breezy night (14-20mph according to my weather app) but there were still plenty of flying insects. There were also several bats flying around so our trap must have been something of a snack bar! Two Cockchafers ended up in the trap, which are the first I have seen round here for years.

We caught 30 moths of 14 species including a first Elephant hawkmoth of the year, two Burnished brass, a Knot grass, two Spectacles and the first Dark arches of the season.
This is a good spot for Dog’s Tooth moths- there were six in the trap this morning. There was also a Brown silver-line, which is surprising, as I don’t know where the nearest bracken might be, the moth looks tatty so perhaps it has flown or been blown some distance

We also caught a rather beaten-up moth that we couldn’t confidently identify. Is it a carpet, a May highflyer or something else?

Any comments gratefully received :-)

Brown silver-line

? ID


Tuesday 4 June 2013

Home Farm, Caerleon

NFY in the trap this morning were 2 May Highflyers.  Managed the following photo of one.  Otherwise just two's of Garden Carpet, Heart & Dart and Treble Lines and a Small Pheonix.

Monday 3 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 2 June

Very quiet last night with just 10 moths of 6 species with the only FFY being a Lime Hawkmoth.

Lime Hawkmoth

Sunday 2 June 2013

Gaer Park Lane, 2nd June

I was given 3 puss moth caterpillars last year. They are amazing caterpillars and they eventually pupated after making cacoons of chewed up bark which are very tough and fantastically camouflaged. The 1st one emerged on 31st May and the second one today.

2nd June 13 - Home Farm, Caerleon


Highlight of the few moths in the trap last night were single Common Marbled Carpet, Heart & Dart and a Herald


Saturday 1 June 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 31 May

Things are definitely picking up with the warmer nights - it was still 12c at 1.30am when I packed up the MV. It was tricky, having to duck to avoid the in-coming May Bugs.  Final catch was 48 moths of 26 species and included FFY: Orange Footman; Spectacle; Alder Kitten; Pebble Hook-tip; Broken-barred Carpet; Knot Grass; Light Brown Apple Moth; and Syndemis musculana.

Orange Footman

Alder Kitten

Error already from Seaview!

We were obviously so excited at blogging that we made a mistake- what I described as a muslin moth is actually a white ermine!!! I had flutter fingers and will try to do better in future :-)

Seaview Moths 31st May

This is our first post to Gwentmothing. We are fairly recent moth recorders having started four years ago.

We have a MV Robinson moth trap which we set up in our large garden at St Brides Wentlooge, a village near the coast on the west side of the river Usk.
The area is mainly unimproved pasture and scrub woodland with willows, poplars and ash dominating. There are also birch, conifers and an apple orchard in the garden. Flower borders and a vegetable patch offer sustenance to caterpillars.

After a very disappointing spring we were delighted this morning to find 31 moths from 23 species. They were Common carpet (x1), Brimstone moth (x3), Hebrew character (x1), White ermine (x1), Silver-ground carpet (x1), Green carpet (x1), Bright line brown eye (x1), Small square spot (x2), Flame shoulder (x5), Pebble prominent (x1), Shuttle-shaped dart (x2), Ruby tiger (x1), Muslin moth (x1), Pale prominent (x1), Grey dagger (x1), Clouded-bordered brindle (x1), Dog’s tooth (x1), Lime-speck pug (x1), Common pug (x1), Coronet (x1), Common wave (x1), Poplar hawkmoth (x1), Iron prominent (x1).

We do hope this bumper harvest is the sign of things to come!

 Silver-ground carpet.

 Dogs tooth
Muslin moth