Look back at 2019

There was a number of posts I unfortunately did not get around to posting on the Blog from June 2019 onwards so I thought I would recap and give everybody an small insight to what we could find in 2020. Best wishes to everybody for the year ahead by the way.

June 21st 2019

Slade Wood, Highmoor Hill

The afternoon locally saw more sunshine as skies cleared, this situation continuing into the evening when I set out to trap. It was a mostly clear sky with just a few clouds about with temperatures falling away steadily.
The course of the trap saw quite a few species arrive eventually numbering 40.
Of the species I had a nice Purple Clay which I've only seen a few times. Normally a deciduous woodland moth so slightly surprised to see it here but several foodplants do occur around the wood.

Purple Clay

There were two others that I had never seen before, one each of Macro and Micro, but both presumably connected to the Scott's Pine in here.
The macro, being Bordered White was a pleasing find, and something I was hoping to see on my list sooner than later. Given that I'm around some Pine on some traps I think I should have seen it sooner.

Bordered White

An exciting find was this very colourful micro which again feeds on Scott's Pine.
Lozotaeniodes formosana (Orange Pine Tortrix), is fairly common to the southern half of Britain reportedly. Somerset Vice County nearby to the south has several locations for it.
It also appears from a Welsh perspective along the South Wales coastline with less records to the north.
I'm unaware of its distribution in our Vice County 35 though?    

Lozotaeniodes formosana

22nd December

Various localities

Managed to see 41 moths today the 22nd of December.
36 Winter Moths and 5 Mottled Umbers.

A Chepstow town walk turned up 5 Male Winter Moths.

Male

At night, I decided to try somewhat higher up than previous trap at St. Pierre's Wood to see if moths were active above 100-200 metres plus.
The first port of call in Whitelye was unfortunately out of bounds due to the excessive amounts of rainfall making placing the car and trap hazardous to say the least.
Further down the road at Upper Hale Wood there was a decent platform to set up.
The weather forecast was not too bad for the evening with showers still a possibility. Setting up the trap early and supping coffee, I then wished I had delayed for another 30 minutes or so, for the only isolated shower of that evening turned up soon after and gave the site and kit a good soaking.
Had to wait some time before big drips off the major trees relinquished before any activity arrived in the form of one moth. This winter moth prompted me to have a look around the site to see if any were nearby and sure enough there were. I quickly found 6 more all perched on lower sapling trees as if all waiting for a passing bus. None wanted to turn up at the light.

 Female winter Moth 'playing dead'

Next further down the hill at Lower Hale Wood. At the gate 3 more Winter Moths were seen but once again the site was out of bounds and virtually waterlogged. Was not prepared to risk getting stuck!

On the way back home tried for one more locality in the form of Ravensnest Wood: another site I had not visited during December.
Here, another messy set up being wet and a little muddy, but the final throw of the dice proved to be very much worth it.
The brief hour I was here I did see 23 moths, with 5 Mottled Umbers of various forms turning up within 20 minutes. Quite pleasing as I normally don't see many totals over 3.
Winter Moths dominated again. These again frequently found on lower limbs of trees like Hazel or Beech and even on grass blades.
It was here that I discovered something that I had been on the look out for several seasons..... a Female Winter Moth. These flightless moths had proved very elusive but there is nothing like seeing them up close.
These 'bug-like' insects were much smaller than I had imagined and difficult to see. Two mating pairs were found low down on grass blades of all places, making the whole mucky, damp effort, all worth it.

'Wingless' female Winter Moth now very much alive

   

2019: another record breaking moth year at Dingestow

I have just finished inputting my moth records for 2019 and totted up my totals for Dingestow. I recorded 15,461 individuals of 543 moth species at Dingestow, on 139 dates, beating last year's total of 12,339 of 532 on 121 dates into a cocked hat.

Top nights, with over 100 species, were:
1st August - 690 individuals of 114 species (2 traps)
26th July - 775 individuals of 108 species (2 traps)
8th July - 486 individuals of 103 species (2 traps)
10th July - 448 of individuals of 103 species (2 traps)
These are exceptions though, and probably relate to significant influxes from the wooded ridge to the south, and the mean species tally for summer trapping (June to August) was just 54 species.

 

10 new species of Macro and 10 new species of Micro take the Dingestow totals to 413 and 541 respectively. The majority of Macro additions were migrants or wanderers from elsewhere in Britain, whilst half the Micros are likely to be overlooked local residents.
Residents: Pale November Moth, Adela croesella, Narycia duplicella, Coleophora albitarsella, Hysterophora maculosana, Dichrorampha montanana
Wanderers: Satin Wave, Pine Hawkmoth, Campion, Double Lobed, Small Rufous, Dark Spectacle, Biselachista albidella, Aphelia viburnana, Catoptria margaritella, Scoparia basistrigalis
Migrants: Bedstraw Hawkmoth, White Point, Small Marbled, Crombrugghia laetus

 

Out of all 15,000 moths there is one I will never forget: the Bedstraw Hawkmoth that arrived on 4th August! Happy New Year to all Gwent Moth'ers - may 2020 bring us all lepidopteran riches.

21st December

Wet evening at St. Pierre's Great Wood, Mounton

I was keen to get out into the wild woods again before the year is out so choose a local wood quite close to me. The weather looked a bit iffy, however it was going to be reasonably mild this evening and overcast with just light rain at times. The forecasted rain did not seem to be materialising here at Chepstow until I was about to depart.
I was already packed and I was going I thought.... looking out of the window at the rain.
The rain was mainly light throughout the evening mirroring the forecast, although some moderate spells did occur especially towards the end around 8pm. This was when I started to get soaking wet and promptly packed up.
Still, it was a good exercise to get out there in the rain and just see what affect it might have on the moth population. The moths did not seem to bothered I can report, as 22 moths of 4 species turned up, although one did reside a distance away on vegetation.
Winter Moth (10), December Moth (9), darker speckled forms of Mottled Umber (2) and a single surprise Yellow-line Quaker. Quite late in the season for this species and the one that sat some 18 feet away from the trap. I was lucky to see it.
I was pleased to discover it because it's my only sighting of this moth this year.  

17th December

Fryth Wood, Howick

Cold this evening hovering at just over 6c.
I did have two things going for me, the calm still air and a mostly cloudy sky.
Not been in this wood in December so bit of an unknown and as it was pretty cool, so did not expect too much activity.

Managed to entice 5 moths to the light trap totalling 3 species;
Winter Moth (3), Mottled Umber (1) and December Moth (1).

The latter find, December Moth, was a new find to the wood since I have been trapping there.
It's around in the vicinity, in woods and my garden so not a great surprise but welcome.

Mottled Umber which sneaked up unnoticed