Mam-moth Catch

Monday night’s conditions were great for mothing, cloudy, mild and humid. The traps were enticingly busy….

 

In fact John filled two trays of boxes just with the moths in the vegetation around the first trap. I was only able to spend a couple of hours there before having to get to work but John put in a solid six hours emptying the three traps and processing the catch.

There were a total of 721 moths and the highest species mix to date. This included 108 definites, a further five moths that can’t be identified to species level in the field and three others taken away for identification or confirmation. There were no less than 27 new species for the parish including Lempke’s Gold Spot….

 

 

Large Emerald…

 

Common Plume…

 

 

And Swallowtail...

 

 

As well as Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix, Bramble Shoot, Figure of Eighty (not a typo!), Common Emerald, Flame Carpet, Yellow Shell, Freyer’s Pug, Scalloped Oak, Cinnabar, Short-cloaked, Purple Clay, Dot, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Broom, Poplar Grey, Dingy Shears and Small Dotted Buff. All of which sound vaguely like the contents of a rather esoteric hardware store…