Saturday 31 August 2013

Redhouse Barns 29th August

I ran the MV Robinson trap. Catch included 2, 2nd brood Poplar Hawkmoths and a Feathered Gothic.

Feathered Gothic

Goldcliff 29th August

I ran the LED trap at the top of the saltmarsh. Catch included 7 Ear moths (probably Saltern Ears) and a Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing.

Some of the Ear spp. moths
 
 
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing


Sunday 25 August 2013

Black Rock - 22 August

A late entry for last Thursday's trapping session at Black Rock.  Tachystola acroxanthafirst record for the county.
Tachystola acroxantha

Friday 23 August 2013


Black Rock, near Portskewett- 22 August
 
Conditions- Mild, dry and mostly clear with near full moon.
Temperature range: 21c falling to 17c.
 
Richard Clark, Kevin Dupe and myself saw plenty of Brimstone and various types of  'Underwings' on this mild, dry and relatively calm evening.
It was a far cry from the last visit to this location to record moths when the weather took a turn for the worst when storms blew up giving thunder and lightning and some heavy bursts of rain which made things very difficult indeed.
No such worries this time as very few clouds were around.
 
Below are pictures of just a few of the moths recorded. (In some cases 'flash' was used and this may not reflect actual colours).
 
Highly likely to be an 'Saltern Ear'.  

Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago)

Black Arches (Lymantria monacha)

Chepstow- 20 August
Conditions- Mostly cloudy, occasional cloud breaks, dry.
Temperature Low- 12.7c.

83 moths of 32 species turned up in and around the trap.
They included:
Brimstone Moth (4) Large Yellow Underwing (5) Flame Shoulder (7)
Lesser BBY Underwing (15) Copper Underwing (2) Common Marble (2)
Shuttle-shaped Dart, Bird-cherry Ermine, Magpie Moth,
Light Brown Apple Moth (2) Silver Y, Common Grass-veneer (4)
Mother Of Pearl (6) Willow Beauty (7) Small Pheonix, Lime-speck Pug,
Knot Grass, Marbled Green, Garden Pebble,
(Possible) Twin-spot Plume (2) Early Thorn, Ruby Tiger,
Double Square-spot (2) The Spectacle, Yellow-barred Brindle (2)
Common Carpet, Flounced Rustic (4) Rustic, Wax Moth,
Square-spot Rustic (2) Triple-spotted Clay and Lychnis. 

Lime-speck Pug (Eupithecia centaureata)
Triple-spotted Clay (Xestia ditrapezium) 

Saturday 17 August 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 15 August

Thursday night produced 139 moths of 60 species of which 19 were Micro - I was pleased with this Micro catch as numbers have not been very good in the garden this year.  Two of the Micro species are illustrated below, both being of "local" distribution in Gwent and new for year (NFY).  There were several other NFY: Copper Underwing; Square-spot Rustic; Catoptria pinella; and, Bucculatrix ulmella.  Others of interest included the 3rd Dusky Thorn of the year, Silver Y, Blood Vein (x2), Canary Shouldered Thorn, Diamond Back Moth, Rosy Rustic, Willow Beauty f. rebeli, Marbled Green and Black Arches.
Agriphila latistria

Yponomeuta  plumbella

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Lower Ochrwyth

A few new for the year during recent days: Dusky Thorn, Rosy Rustic x2, Barred Hook-tip & Sallow Kitten (6th); Canary Shouldered-Thorn (9th); Ruby Tiger (10th); Dusky Thorn & Burnished Brass (11th).

The Dusky Thorn was new for the garden and for the 2km square - as were the earlier Purple Thorns.

Burnished Brass

Dusky Thorn

Sunday 11 August 2013

Skenfrith - 9 August

A third visit to Skenfrith to "fill the gap" produced a very respectable 181 moths of 60 species.  Most to MV, but "sugaring" of a few trees by Kevin produced the Old Ladies:

Agriphila straminella                            Lesser Yellow Underwing
Agriphila tristella (4)                            Magpie
Antler Moth                                           Mother of Pearl (6)
Bird Cherry Ermine                                Oak Hook-tip
Black Arches                                         Old Lady (3)
Blood Vein                                            Orchard Ermine (3)
Blue Bordered Carpet                            Pale Prominent
Brimstone (6)                                         Pebble Prominent
Buff Footman                                         Peppered Moth (2)
Canary Shouldered Thorn                      Red Twin Spot Carpet (3)
Chequered Free Tree Tortrix                  Riband Wave
Carcina quercana                                 Rosy Footman
Common Pug                                         Ruby Tiger (6)
Common Rustic (2)                                Sallow Kitten (5)
Common White Wave                            Single Dotted Wave
Dark Arches                                          Silver Y (8)
Dingy Footman (15)                               Slender Brindle
Double Square Spot                               Small Fan-Footed Wave (5)
Drinker                                                  Small Phoenix (4)
Dunbar (4)                                             Small Rivulet (2) 
Early Thorn                                            Smokey Wainscot
Eudonia mercurella                              Snout (3)
Flame Shoulder (16)                               Spectacle
Gold Spot                                               Straw Dot
Iron Prominent                                        Swallow Prominent (2)
July Highflyer (3)                                     Tawny Speckled Pug
Knot Grass                                              Udea Prunalis (2)
Large Yellow Underwing (7)                    Willow Beauty (2)
Least Yellow Underwing                          Yellow Shell
Lesser BB Yellow Underwing                   Yellow-tail (6) 

Team on the night: Sheila, Fiona, Kevin, Max and myself. Thanks again to Jean Prosser of St Bridet's for allowing access and for alerting neighbours to the "lights". 
Old Lady at "Sugar" - thanks Max for photograph

Thursday 8 August 2013

Nash 7th August
I only ever catch Bulrush Wainscots if I put a trap next to lots of reedmace and as it is one of my favourite moths I did just that. I placed the new LED trap in a ditch that was only created 3 years ago, but is already half full of reedmace. I say created, but it was actually restored as there had been a ditch there previously, but the farmer had filled it in to create a bigger field.
The trap was half way down the ditch bank and was not visible from the field next to it, so I only expected to catch a few moths, but these would hopefully include bulrush wainscots.
The next morning, I went to check the trap. There were quite a few moths outside the trap - always a good sign, including a blood-vein, a sallow kitten, 3 canary shouldered thorns and a willow beauty. There were moths flying around inside the trap and as usual a few flew off as I took off the lid. I checked the 4 egg trays one by one and all together there were  136 moths of 35 species. They included: 7 silver-Y's, 4 southern wainscots, 38 common/lesser common rustics, 33 flame shoulders, 1 brown china-mark, 5 six-striped rustics, 1 gothic, a female oak eggar and a dark sword-grass. Of course it was the last tray that I checked that had 2 bulrush wainscots!




Bulrush Wainscot

Redhouse Barns, Goldcliff 6th Aug

38 species came to an MV Robinson trap. 11 species were outside the trap - under the table it sits on and the wall of the barn which is approx 3m away. One of them was new to the reserve - a pretty chalk carpet. There were 2 magpies under the table and one in the trap. The species in the trap included 32 LBBYUW's, 42 common/lesser common rustics, 1 chocolate-tip, 1 dark sword-grass, 2 dog's-tooth, 4 blood-vein, 1 silver-Y, 1 straw underwing and 1 four-spotted footman.

1 of the 3 Magpies

Four-spotted Footman (new to the Reserve)


Uskmouth Foreshore, 6th August

I ran the new LED trap just the below the sea-wall at Uskmouth (after informing the Coast Guard).
It attracted 26 species, including: 4 brown-veined wainscots, 11 southern wainscots, 6 small wainscots, 2 silky wainscots, 1 dusky sallow, 1 magpie, 5 crescent, 24 common/lesser common rustics, 12 dingy footman, 1 canary-shouldered thorn and 3 Agonopterix yeatiana.

2 of the 5 Crescents

Southern Wainscot

2 of the 6 Small Wainscots

Dusky Sallow

Sunday 4 August 2013

Between the showers

 A couple of new species for the year to the outside light at Lower Ochrwyth: Purple Thorn and an Ear Moth.  At Uskmouth this morning, a Chocolate-tip.    
Chocolate-tip

Saturday 3 August 2013

Uskmouth Reedbeds 1st August

I ran a new type of battery powered trap which uses special LED's which emit UV light. It uses much less power than a flouresent tube type of actinic trap and I had been told that the catches were far superior, but I was a bit sceptical.

In the morning I could see quite a few moths outside the trap including 5 drinkers and a mouse moth which I haven't seen for around 8 years. When I opened the trap I was a bit over-whelmed! There were hundreds of moths!



Mouse Moth
 
There were dozens of wainscots and  I identified and counted:
18 silky wainscot, 55 brown-veined wainscot, 64 southern wainscot, 1 obscure wainscot and 1 twin-spotted wainscot. There were also a total of 15 drinker, 2 dark sword-grass, 4 small rufous, 1 antler, 2 ruby tiger, 31 common/lesser common rustic, 1 Chilo phragmitella, 2 dingy footman, 4 large yellow underwing, 1 July high-flyer, l lesser yellow underwing and 4 least yellow underwing.
 
Some of the bumper catch with Drinkers, Brown-veined Wainscots, Southern Wainscots and Silky Wainscots.


Goldcliff 1st August

I ran a Skinner type actinic trap on the edge of the saltmarsh and was rewarded with a catch of 41 moths of 15 species, including antler, small rufous, gold spot, ruby tiger (9), orange swift and saltern ear (5).



 2 of the 5 Saltern Ear
 







Black Rock - too wet to moth?

The ground shook, the sky lite up and the rain came down - perfect conditions to get the MV out and to venture forth to Black Rock for a further follow up visit!   Despite the conditions, the gaps between the heavy downpours did offer the opportunity to catch some moths and the team (Kevin, Beth, Nick and myself), supported by several hungry bats, ended up with a semi-respectable catch - a total of 42 species, comprising 217 moths.    

Cats and dogs then moths - thanks Beth for photograph
A selection of the night's catch follows: Antler Moth, Black Arches, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Buff Footman, Dingy Footman (x19), Dog tooth, Dunbar (x26), Drinker (x3), Iron Prominent, Oak Egger, Peach Blossom, Pretty Chalk Carpet, Rosy Footman (x9), Silver Y (x7), Swallow Prominent, White-spotted Pug, Yellow Tail (x7) and a few micro including Endotricha flammealis and Epiblema foenella.

Thursday 1 August 2013

Lower Ochrwyth - 28 July - 31 July

A few recent catches at Ochrwyth:

28th - Meal Moth, Beautiful Hook-tip x2, V-pug, White Plum Moth.
29th - Rosy Footman

Gold Spot
Black Arches
Beautiful Hook-tip
30th - 177 moths of 72 species.  Gold Spot, Black Arches, Coronet x2, Silver Y, Tawny-barred Angle, Spectacle x4, Dingy Footman x6, Buff Footman x5, Dingy Shell x4, July Highflyer x17, Chinese Character, Pyrausta aurata, and Common Lutestring.

31st - Rosy Footman