9th July

Fryth Wood, Howick

A belated post due to computer issues and a backlog of paperwork.
A trip to one of the local woods near me was very productive with 120 moths containing 51 species over the course of approximately two and three quarter hours.

15 nationally 'localised' species of moth turned up with one 'Scarce B'.
Of the macros Blomer's Rivulet, Coronet, Black Arches, Rosy Footman, a nice addition Satin Lutestring, Clouded Magpie, Scorched Carpet, Clay Triple-lines, an eye-catching Scallop Shell (pictured above) plus a surprise Small Emerald (pictured below).

If fact 4 types of 'Emerald' were here that night. Small Emerald, Common Emerald, Light Emerald and a trap-shy Large Emerald which kept flirting around the light-trap.

Micro's were equalling interesting, in fact even more so, with some new additions to me.
I've featured some here below with names underneath.

 Cochlis roseana (Rosy Conch)

 Aethes rubigana (Burdock Conch)

 Yponomeuta sedella (Grey Ermine)

Yponomeuta cagnagella (Spindle Ermine)

Eana incanana (Bluebell Shade)

Morophaga choragella (Large Clothes Moth)

All six micros above I've never seen before apart from Bluebell Shade. The micro also resides in a wood nearby but appears to be seemingly quite rare considering the amount of woods I've been in so far. It could be possibly I've just missed it.

The last featured micro Morophaga choragella is certainly a bit of a rarity.

Sam Bosaquet said 'he had never seen it' which is a surprise in itself. He went on to say that it had been seen only twice in the county, 1979 and 2006.  

When I saw it under torchlight that evening it appeared to be in its latter part of its life with what looked like broken scales, faded colours. Never the less it looked windswept and interesting so I had to take it back to get a closer look. My moth book describes it as 'dirty whitish', 'sandy brown' and indeed that is just how it is under daylight. The moth feeds on Bracket fungi of which there must be a few places in this wood where it grows.