Wednesday 17 October 2018

16/10 - Delicate and Streak

Another strong southerly airflow finally delivered a new migrant moth to Dingestow: my long-awaited first Delicate.  It was accompanied by 2 Vestals, 2 Dark Swordgrass and 1 Diamond-back, along with a good range of resident species.  Surprise of the night was a gorgeous Streak, the first of this allegedly 'common' species that I've seen anywhere.  These are Macros 401 and 402 for Dingestow, taking the moths total to 933.




Sunday 14 October 2018

Stormy nights

Strong southerlies in early October tempted me to trap 7 times, producing big catches (>100 moths of >30 species several times) and a few migrants.  Highlight was a Scarce Bordered Straw on 13/10 (although moth'ers across Britain caught much better species that night).  Notable species were:

2/10: 1 Dark Sword-grass

3/10: 1 Figure-of-eight, 1 Brown-spot Pinion

4/10: 1 Bright-line Brown-eye (2nd gen), 1 Small Fan-footed Wave (2nd gen)
 
8/10: 1 Brown-spot Pinion, 1 Large Wainscot
10/10: 2 Turnip
 
11/10: 1 Yellowtail (2nd gen), 2 Large Wainscot, 1 Figure-of-eight
 

13/10: 1 Scarce Bordered Straw, 1 Beautiful Hooktip (2nd gen), 1 Large Wainscot, 1 Figure-of-eight, 1 Zelleria hepariella

 
Also really good counts of Merveille du Jour, Barred Sallow, Dark Chestnut and other autumn species

Thursday 11 October 2018

Oecophora bractella larva


I visited Graig Wood in the Wye Valley yesterday with 4 NRW colleagues to discuss the provision of deadwood in NRW managed forestry in/adjacent to SSSIs. We prised off some bark on a fallen Beech to look for bettles and spotted this micromoth larva (photographed by Rob Bacon).  It's Oecophora bractella - one of the Wye Valley's special inverts - being too dark for the commoner Esperia sulphurella and with the head the wrong shape for the much rarer Dasycera oliviella.