Nettle Tap Moth

One of several on White Dead-nettle this morning at Cullaloe. So there were some moths out and about.

Sitting on the Dock ...

There was nowt in the moth trap last night after a cold and clear night, but butterflies were up and about this morning at Cullaloe. Male and female Orange Tip on Dock and Cuckoo Flower respectively

Gallery - moths - family Epermeniidae (477-484)

483 Epermenia chaerophyllella

10/05/2014

Friday 9th April - HOB, Falkland Palace

With my own new heath trap out in the garden I headed for Falkland Palace, where I will hope to be 'manning' their moth trap occasionally throughout the year. Weather was a bit breezy and the sky was clear, so it wasn't with high expectations that we left the trap running. The haul in the morning was not extensive, but it did add three species to the site list. With this being the earliest date in the year the site had been worked the common Common Quaker was a new addition, as was Brindled Pug and a nicely patterned micro, Syndemis musculana.There is also one more micro that may be ID'd and added to the list later

(Addendum: unidentified micro was 688, A.heracliana, also new for the site)

688 Agonopterix heracliana

986 Syndemis musculana

1722 Flame Carpet Xanthorhoe designata
1759 Small Phoenix Ecliptopera silaceata
1834 Common Pug
1852 Brindled Pug
2187 Common Quaker (2)
2190 Hebrew Character (2)

view from the orchard

Common Quaker

Flame Carpet

Syndemis musculana

Common Pug

Small Phoenix

Hebrew Character

Brindled Pug (to be confirmed)

Natural habitat pose

Spruce Carpet

On returning to examine my spoils from yesterday it turned out that my samples had sadly expired. The macro I netted also turned out to be a Spruce Carpet - completely different from what I guessed in the field, although I was aware that the cold coloration made it look different anyway.

1769 Spruce Carpet Thera britannica (Turner H J, 1925)

Mid-day Micros

Picked up a couple of micros at lunchtime. Plus one badly worn macro which I think will be Shaded Broad Bar when it stops flapping.

The first micro appears to be Ancylis badiana, a nicely decorated little moth (link). Seems to be a legume muncher with vetches and clovers on the menu. And peas, but I don't think we have any peas.

The second which I'm still working on, looks like this:

6th May

First chance to put the trap out after holiday, although it was taken back in when the rain started to come down (maybe I should have left it?)

Golden Rod Pug, at first misidentified by me and then correctly identified by someone who knows better. My first pug :)

I also have two micros that I haven't started to process, but they may also be identified before I revisit them. In an advanced state of agitation, I was lucky to get a blurry shot, never mind a look at them.

(update - before I finished posting Parsnip Moth has emerged as the likely candidate)