Cullaloe 28/06/2014

A nice collection with some new species featured (in bold)

Macros
Poplar Hawk-moth (2)
Mottled Beauty (2)
Common Wave (3)
Double Dart (2)
Clouded Border (3)
Silver-ground Carpet (2)
Small Dotted Buff (2)
Straw Dot (1)

Shoulder-striped Wainscot (1)
July Highflyer (1)
Dark Arches (1)

 Micros
Pandemis heparana, Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix 
Unknown

Mottled Beauty

Knot Grass

Dark Arches

 

July Highflyer

Double Dart

Poplar Hawk-moth

Sholder-striped Wainscot

Pandemis heparana

Cullaloe 25/06/2014

Heath trap left overnight between 22:00 and 5:00. Night fairly mild and dry. Slight breeze, but trap site is sheltered.

First sight to greet me was a Clouded Border sitting on a plant near the trap, and the trap itself was decorated lavishly with them -7  in all. Also evident around the trap was Common Wave and Light Emerald. I love these green moths. In a back garden flashback there was a Marbled Beauty, which I swear occupied exactly the same spot as the same species occupied at home. The only other species encountered 'outside' the trap was Brown Rustic, of which there were 2.

Inside the trap things started to get a bit more interesting - did I say I liked green moths? The first thing that struck me was the Large Emerald which was inside. What a fantastic beast! Also inside were a Coxcomb Prominent (I think), which resolutely refused to stand up s it pretended to be a leaf and a Straw Dot, which I had first encountered flying in daylight a couple of days previous (actually it was yesterday - sleep deprivation!).

Four new species for the year list and probably for the reserve although I haven't checked that yet. There was also a little Crambid which refused to leave the trap and ended up in a pot. Whether I can do anything with that or not is anybody's guess, but it was one of two present.

Count
Large Emerald (1)
Light Emerald (2)
Clouded Border (7)
Brown Rustic (2)
Common Wave (1)
Straw Dot (1)
Marbled Beauty (1)
Double Dart (1)
Unknown crambid (2)

Photos

Clouded collection

Marbled Beauty

One inside

... and one outside. Light Emerald

Coxcomb Prominent

Common Wave

Straw Dot

Large Emerald

Double Dart

Double Dart

The "known unknowns"

Cryptographic Crambid

Hill of Beath, 24/06/2014

Another fairly mild night though with much lower temperatures it felt like. I didn't get up to check the trap until 4:00, which makes me wonder whether I didn't lose anything. Previously checking the trap at 3:30 while it was still fairly dark I had a better haul. I think that it was just genuine different results though. It was a small collection but with a particularly fine new species for me - wish I had a field guide with me at work. Maybe I'll dig it out from ukmoths during the day sometime.

Garden Carpet (1)
Marbled Beauty (2)
Small Angle Shades (1)
Whatever this is (1) ...(Shoulder-striped Wainscot?)

Marbled Beauty, becoming a bit of a regular - nice though

Shady broad-bar and Straw Dot

I think this is a Shaded Broad-bar, netted from the spillway area at Cullaloe, although it's darker and more rufous than any of the ones I've seen there before. May be a bit early, but it's just about right and they will be abundant soon enough. On reflection it may prove to be something else, but it looks in the ballpark at least. Lovely pectinate antennae.

Also netted at lunchtime in the spillway area was this Straw Dot, which sadly had to go in a smaller tube than ideal.

Hill of Beath, 23/06/2014

After an hour at dusk at Cullaloe I left the trap out overnight in Hill of Beath since it seemed like good weather, quite warm and overcast

I had another, or the same, Marbled Beauty, a Middle-barred Minor and a Heart & Dart, which has been standard fare of late. Added to that, though, I had a Double Square-spot, which was new. I also had three of the mystery noctuid in the last two photographs, one of which looked like someone had been playing football with it (are they just Pale-shouldered Brocade though? I think so. No - they are Dark Arches)

Double Square-spot

Middle-barred minor

Dark Arches

Moth trap revival - Cullaloe, 23/06/2014

After exchanging emails with Paul Batty last night a fuse was changed and my heath trap sparked back into life - hooray!

An hour at Cullaloe landed a couple of Sandy Carpets and a couple of Small Fan-footed Wave (I think). One other species I brought back which I haven't ID'd yet and of course a handful of Silver-ground Carpets. Also caught were a couple of Common White Waves. Actually, though I was running the trap in the car park area all moths were netted by walking the edges with a torch (as previous visit). The heath trap doesn't do well in the car park, at least at dusk.

Sandy Carpet

Small Fan-footed Wave

Small Fan-footed Wave 2

Red-green carpet

Hummingbird Hawk-moth survey map

Reprazentin' for VC85 ...

Northern Brown Argus & Hummingbird Hawk-moth

We headed out to Earlsferry this morning to look for Northern Brown Argus on the Rock Rose which went successfully with between 5 and 10 seen in flight and resting.

There were also Small Heaths and Green-veined Whites seen, but biggest surprise of the day was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth which Kenny ran into while trying to get a NBA photo. It did manage to hang around enough for a couple of shaky photo opportunities before departing but it never settled. (It has been suggested that this is an ovipositing female, with the food plant being Lady's Bedstraw. Sounds reasonable)

Also frequently seen were Yellow Shell moths, and at least one Barred Straw amongst them

There were some nice flowers in the area besides the Rock Rose: Wild Thyme, Viper's Bugloss, Lady's Bedstraw, Scarlet Pimpernel, Common Restharrow and more - worth a visit for the flowers alone.

Hill of Beath, 20/06/2014

23:00-03:45

Small Angle Shades (3)
Heart & Dart (1)
Beautiful Golden Y (1)
Marbled Beauty (1)
Silver-ground Carpet (1)
Spruce Carpet (1)
Brown Rustic (1)

(pics to follow)

Cullaloe Quickie

Made a one hour trip to the car park at Cullaloe last night (19th) between 10:30 and 11:30. It wasn't properly dark even when I left. After setting up the trap in the car park I wandered up and down the roadside verges and underneath the car park trees and all three of these hits were from netted individuals.

Apart from these there were c.40 Silver-ground Carpets just on the road between the gate and the car park proper. I finally learned to identify them in torchlight before netting, although I did continue to catch the odd one just in case they turned out to be some other kind of carpet with dark marks. They never did. The Light Emerald and Mottled Beauty stood out as something different on size and tone and the Udea was spotted on a plant in the verge.

Light Emerald

Mottled Beauty

Udea olivalis

Snout, 19/06/2014

An unexpected "easily disturbed during the day" species showed up beside the filter beds at Cullaloe.

Snout, Hypena proboscidalis

Morning moth

Nice Yellow Shell hiding in the sunshine this morning at Cullaloe

Cullaloe LNR, 14-06-2104

Heath trap left to its own devices while I was away at Falkland Palace/watching the England-Italy game at 2 in the morning! A nice collection of new species was acquired for the year list, with some for the all time Culalloe list and some new to me completely. The benefit of mothing in three places is that I get to transfer what I've learned and (hopefully) cement some of the knowledge in my grey matter.

List:
Poplar Hawk-moth (1)
Brown Rustic (4)
Map-winged Swift (1)
White Ermine (1)
Small Dotted Buff (1)
Clouded Border (2)
Green Carpet (1)
Silver-ground Carpet (3)
Riband Wave (1)
Common Wave (1)
Clouded Silver (2)

Poplar H-M a regular find now

Flame Shoulder

White Ermine

The Miller

Middle-barred Minor

Riband Wave

Small Dotted Buff