Lighthouse Park/ Imperial Park

My February mothing followed along the same trend as for January with just

Macro
8 x Pale Brindled Beauty
2 x Dark Chestnut
1 x Early Moth
1 x Dotted Border

Micro
1 x Emmelina monodactyla

Lets hope March see's an increase in moth activity and a few more attracted to the traps.

                                   Dark Chestnut

Pale Brindled Beauty

First of the year

After a fruitless January and early February we finally had a specimen after running our light trap last Wednesday night (12th February). The specimen was a Pale Brindled Beauty and was found outside the trap on the adjacent wall.  Hopefully many more to follow soon.

Anybody with an interest in butterflies and moths is welcome to attend our annual winter meeting.


on Friday, 13th March 7.30pm start.


The venue is the Royal British Legion in Usk (Old Market Street, Usk, NP15 1AL).


After a short business session  George Tordoff, Butterfly Conservation Wales, Conservation Officer, will give an illustrated talk on their work with "Threatened Lepidoptera of South East Wales".

Martin Anthoney will give an up-date on "Filling the blank squares" - our progress on work for the forthcoming atlases on Butterflies and Moths, with 2015 the last chance to provide records.

New VC Butterfly Distribution Maps Available

Martin Anthony has updated (to end of 2014) the butterfly distribution maps for the Vice County.  You can access the maps from the link on this blog under "Monmouthshire, VC 35 - Species Lists & Distribution" found on RHS.  It's good to see that many "gaps" in species' distribution are being addressed.  Let's hope for a good summer, so that more of the white areas of the county map can be looked at.

15th-31st January - Chepstow
Out of the cold and into the inside..to hibernate.

No trapping sessions have been conducted here at Chepstow so far this year but none the less, a few micro moth sightings have created an interest inside the house.
Note: Common micro moth names listed in brackets.

A second micro Psychoides filicivora (Fern Smut) has been sighted- the first ever for the site was recorded just a few months ago.
Also a new addition to the site here was Depressaria daucella (Dingy Flat-body) on the 15th January.

Depressaria daucella (above)

Another important new species that has been registered here was confirmed by Sam Bosanquet last year on 25th October 2014.
The micro Mompha sternipennella (Kentish cosmet) turned up.
Further sightings of this Nationally Scarce B moth have taken place in January 2015 on the 21st and 31st.
Most importantly Saturday the 31st provided two specimen's to look at and photograph in separate rooms.So not just an isolated case.
One of the moths seems deep in hibernation whilst the other is partially active.

Such is it's size, the Mompha sternipennella pictured above is set up against can you believe -wallpaper!