Lighthouse Park

Ran the actinic for 3 hours last night 40 species including NFY were Small Blood-vein, Small Elephant Hawkmoth & Round-winged Muslin.

Reddish Light Arches (not) at Reddish House Barns, Goldishcliff, 26th June.

I ran the MV at Redhouse Barns, Goldcliff on 26th. I found 7 elephant hawkmoths and one poplar hawk the next morning. The best moth was a reddish-light arches, which is only the 2nd County Record. Its been pointed out that this moth was actually a clouded-bordered brindle, so its a reddish face for me!
I also did the butterfly transect on 24th for the 3rd week running. I was amazed by how the numbers of narrow-bordered 5-spot burnet moths had dropped from over 200 a week before to just 13 this week, with similar weather conditions. It shows just how short the life span of some adult moths is. The 13 I saw all looked very dull and warn.
Ringlets had increased from a handful to over 100. Today I also saw them on the Gaer Fort and also at Malpas, so they seem to have spread all over Newport. I saw 1 marbled white on the transect at Uskmouth and 3 scarlet tigers. On the Gaer Fort there were 8 marbled whites today.

Lower Ochrwyth - 25 June

Set the actinic for a few hours, which resulted in 52 moths of 20 species: little of note, but NFY included Clay, Catoptria falsella; Ypsolopha parenthesella; Eudonia delunella, Eudonia mercurella and Red-barred Tortrix.

Lighthouse Park

Leopard Moth and Eyed Hawkmoth from 131 moths 47 species 4 hour actinic garden session last night.

Lower Ochrwyth -20 June

On Friday night 40 species were attracted to the MV including NFY: Swallowtail, E-Hawk x4, Common Swift,  Green Arches x3, Foxglove and Current Pug, Heart & Club.  Finally, Treble Brown Spot and a Map-winged Swift were also both new for the garden.

Lighthouse Park

The star of the show from last nights 94 moth 47 species actinic garden trap session has got to be this Goat Moth. The eighth county record for the species.

Uskmouth Butterfly transect 17th June

Scarlet Tigers - 1, Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet 224.

I carried out the transect this afternoon. It was warm and sunny, but a bit breezy. The first Ringlets of the year were out, with 7 recorded. Meadow Brown had increased to 17. There were 8 Large Skippers and 2 Small Skippers. 2 Small Tortoiseshell and 11 Speckled Wood. Day flying moths were much more abundant that butterflies with 224 Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet, 1 Cinnabar, 1 Burnet Companion and the first Scarlet Tiger of the year. I also saw 3 Yellow Shell and a Silver-Y. No Common Blue butterflies were seen

Lower Ochrwyth & Cwm-y-nant

A late post for 12th when NFY included: Green Silver-lines x3; Large Yellow Underwing; Lobster Moth; Beautiful Golden Y; Shoulder-striped Wainscot; and, Mottled Beauty. Total catch for evening 92 moths of 36 species.
Yesterday evening at Cwm y nant, Ochrwyth there was a 6-spot Burnet on an orchid, and Nettle-tap and Marbled White-spot.

X2 MV & the hunter's moon - 13 June 2014

Visited Llangattock Lingoed last night with KD in deepest darkest Monmouthshire as part of part II of "filling the gaps" initiative - moth recording where there are few county records.  Ran two MVs in the churchyard, which produced 161 moths of 59 species.

Green Pug, Common Pug, Foxglove Pug, V Pug, Broken-barred Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Flame Carpet, Silver Ground Carpet, Lime a Hawk Moth, Elephant Hawk Moth, Buff Ermine, White Ermine, Small Square Spot, Purple Clay, Heart & Dart, Engrailed Clay, Flame, Alder Moth, Beautiful Golden Y, Spectacle, Dark Arches, Buff Arches, Peach Blossom, Pale Prominent, Iron Prominent, Straw Dot, Swift, Middle-barred Minor, Ghost Moth, Flame Shoulder, Bee moth, Beautiful Hook-tip, Peppered Moth, Brimstone, Large Yellow Underwing, Willow Beauty, Snout, Thistle Ermine, Garden Pebble, Rivulet, Common White Wave, Clouded silver, Small Angle Shades, Small Fan-foot, Blood Vein, Shoulder Stripe Wainscott, Figure of 80, Poplar Grey, Light Emerald, Millar, Lobster Moth, Udea olivalis, chrysoteuchia culmella, Pseudargyrotoza conwagana, Plum Tortrix, Dichrorampha montanana, Orthotaeniaundulana, Eudonia truncicolella.

Uskmouth Butterfly Transect 12th June

I carried out the transect this week. We are in a lull in butterflies numbers at the moment - in between broods of many species. I saw no small tortoiseshell, peacocks, commas or red admirals for example, but plenty of caterpillars of peacocks and small tortoiseshell.
The most abundant butterfly was speckled wood with 18 seen. I also saw 6 common blue, 2 small skipper, 2 large skipper and 7 "whites" which always seemed to be flying too far away and too quickly to identify. The first meadow browns have emerged, with 4 seen. The most abundant Lepidopteran by far though, was narrow-bordered five-spot burnet with over 40 seen. There were numerous pairs of NBFS burnet mating right next to the cocoon which the female had emerged from. Why should the female waste energy flying about when she can release some pheromones and wait for the males to come to her? I also saw 1 cinnabar moth, a latticed heath and 2 burnet companions.
The next day I saw 3 small tortoiseshells and a peacock at Uskmouth!

Lighthouse Park

A bit of a late post from 31st May. Trapped this Chamomile Shark with the actinic in the garden.

Bedwas - 7th June

A look around the old colliery spoil at Bedwas this afternoon was worthwhile with at least x8 Burnet Companion, Cinnabar, Common marbled Carpet, Pyrausta purpuralis and x6 caterpillar of what I think is probably 5-spot Burnet.  There were also some butterflies with good numbers of Common Blue (x11) and x4 Small Heath, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood x2 and Large and Small White.

Lighthouse Park

Ran the actinic last night temp 16° cloudy SSE 5.152 moths of 47 species.highlights Figure of Eighty, Miller, Foxglove Pug, Alabonia geoffrella.

Lower Ochrwyth - 31 May

MV last night - 37 moths of 24 species:  new for year included, Buff-tip, Latticed Heath, Foxglove Pug, Common White Wave, Poplar Hawkmoth, Peppered Moth, Uncertain and Pseudargyrotoza conwagana. Also trapped were: Alder Kitten, Small square-spot and Pale Tussock.

Earlier in the day the Little Thorn below was seen at Park Wood, Bassaleg.