Falkland, 25/09/2015

Overnight moth trapping with one MV Robinson trap set up and only checked in the morning

LYU: 15
Common Marbled Cazrpet: 1
Rosy Rustic: 3
Silver Y: 2
Mouse Moth: 1
Lesser Yellow Underwing: 2
Green-brindled Crescent: 2 (new for palace/hectad)
Canary-shouldered Thorn: 1 (new for palace/hectad)

A lot of wasps in the trap making working difficult. One nice micro got away while I attempted to pot it between clumps of wasps. Didn't get stung though and a lot of them made off as soon as the light was off.

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Green-brindled Crescent

Mouse Moth

Silver Y

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Falkland Palace, 12th June, 4 MV traps

A public mothing event at the palace saw traps out in force. Four traps were run in different corners of the palace grounds - at least until one packed up at about midnight anway. It did well before then though.

Undoubtedly the star of the show was Scorched Wing (last pic), in only its second fife site.

Also in one of the traps was a soldierfly (Chloromyia formosa) and a hoverfly (Platycheirus nielseni). If the latter is confirmed it may be the first Fife record.

About 30 species were trapped overall. I'll wait until I receive confirmation before adding the total list

Small Fan-foot

Parsnip moth

Ghost moth - male

Small Phoenix

Scalloped Hazel

Middle-barred Minor

Flame Carpet

Silver-ground Carpet

Bright-line Brown-eye

Pale-shouldered Brocade

Clouded-bordered Brindle

 

Poplar Hawk Moths

Spectacle

  

Foxglove pug

Grass Rivulet

Anania fuscalis

Nut-tree Tussock

Purple Clay

 

Scorched Wing

Falkland Palace, 20/03/2015

Trap run from 18:45 to 21:00. A steady trickle, with one target species gathered for square NT20. One of the Satellites I found sitting on the bridge and resolutely stayed there, either oblivious to, or not caring about, the light. One of the other highlights was a flurry of stoneflies on the wooden bridge above the stream.

Yellow Horned (1)
Common Quaker (2)
Hebrew Character (3)
Agonopterix heracliana (2)

Satellite

Hebrew Char

Common Quaker

Stonefly

Falkland Palace, 13/02/2015

Good to get the moth trap running again in 2015 - no records for February here before, so anything would be a new 'stake in the ground' for future recording. A nice evening saw a small but nice haul, with 6 moth of 4 species and a Great Diving Beetle.

Of course mothing at this time of the year is unknown to me, so the ID struggle is up and running again! Hopefully I will soon be overlaying last year's learning with some repetition and reinforcement.

Dotted Border

Pale Brindled Beauty

Pale Brindled Beauty

Satellite

Common Quaker?

Great Diving Beetle

From the superb flight times pages of East Scotland Butterfly Conservation - if you want to see a Pale Brindled Beauty, this is the time!

Falkland Palace, 23/11/2014

Trap left overnight and examined in the morning turned up some nice winter specialities - all therefore new to the Palace and to the hectad, which I assume hasn't been done in November before

The Count
December Moth (1)
Scarce Umber (1)
Mottled Umber (1)
Winter Moth (6)
Epirrita sp. (1)

Falkland Palace, 10th October 2014, Hill of Beath 11th

Ran the trap between 19:40 and 21:40, which at times seemed a long shift. There were numerous 'November Moth Types' around the trap and perched in various trees, and besides that a Red-green Carpet settled on the cloth. At half past nine I decided to crack open the trap just to see if I was missing things, and in the middle of the trap, all on its own, was the Black Rustic below. It was the only moth in the trap. I decided to call it a night. In November I will go the whole hog and leave the trap overnight. There just isn't enough action to justify standing around. What there is, though, is a new record for the gardens and for the hectad NO20 - a gap nicely plugged as the species is recorded in almost all other hectads in the county (full sized ones, not bits of coast!)

'November' moth

Black Rustic

Black Rustic

The following night in Hill of Beath I also managed one moth - a Brick

Falkland Palace, 13/09/2014

Unable to get the electricity on, I resorted to roaming the garden with head-torch and net. The lovely purple Asters produced two Angle Shades

Falkland Palace, 01/08/2014

"Creatures of the Night" annual public moth trapping at falkland saw three MV traps going, but the temperature dropped sharply as the sun went and things were strangely quiet. The trap in the normal place looked like it would have done well. That is, it might have done well if it hadn't drawn in a swarm of wasps from a nearby nest! It had to be relocated, so it probably didn't do as well as it might have. Only about 20 species had been recorded by the time I left at 11:45'ish, but the number went up to 34 by the morning, with 350 individual moths noted, many of which were, naturally, Large Yellow Underwings. There were some nice species that I missed which would have been new to me, not least Gold Spangle.

New for the palace list: 
Macros: Slender Brindle, Haworth’s Minor, Gold Spangle, Grey Chi
Micros: Mother of Pearl, Brown China Mark, Bird Cherry Ermine, Crambus perlella, Crambus Lathoniellus 


Macros
Twin-spotted Carpet
Slender Brindle
LYU
LBBYU
6-striped Rustic
Common Carpet
Common Rustic
July Highflyer
Smoky Wainscots
Common Wainscot
Dark Arches
Dotted Clay
Dun-bar
True-lover’s Knot
Clay
Broad-bordered YU
Lesser YU
Rosy Rustic
Haworth’s Minor
Gold Spangle
Burnished Brass
Antler
Grey Chi
Small Phoenix
Riband Wave
Barred Straw
Garden Carpet

Micros
Mother of Pearl
Brown China Mark
Bird Cherry Ermine
Agriphila tristella
Crambus perlella
Blastobasis Adustella
Crambus Lathoniellus

Pictures

Burnished Brass

Brown China-mark

Slender Brindle

Bird Cherry Ermine

Six-striped Rustic

Falkland Palace, 11/07/2014

Moonlight

A lovely night with a full moon but a fair amount of cloud. We started off at about 21:30 when it was understandably quiet, and stayed until about 00:30 when we became over-run and the pots were all full. Managed to add a few species to the Falkland list and even a couple of new macros for the hectad - Scalloped Oak and Small Fan-footed Wave.

The list
macros
1702 Small Fan-footed Wave (1)
1742 Yellow Shell (1)
1758 Barred Straw (3)
1803 Small Rivulet (3)
1809 Twin-spot Carpet (3)
1862 Double-striped Pug (1)
1906 Brimstone Moth (1)
1921 Scalloped Oak (1)
1922 Swallow-tailed Moth (3)
1941 Mottled Beauty (3)
1955 Common White Wave (1)
1961 Light Emerald (3)
2089 Heart and Dart (2)
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (10)
2118 True Lover's Knot (1)
2176 Antler Moth (1)
2284 Grey Dagger (1)
2321 Dark Arches (1)
2123 Small Square-Spot (2)(?)
2340 Middle-barred Minor (2)
2345 Small Dotted buff (1)
2440 Lempke's Gold Spot (1)
2443 Plain Golden Y (2)
2476 Straw Dot (3)
2474 Snout (1)

Micros
1033 Green Oak Tortrix (1)
1356 Garden Pebble (1)

Will never know
Smoky Wainscot? (1)
Common Wainscot? (1)

The New

Scalloped oak

Small Fan-footed Wave

Garden Pebble

Green Oak Tortrix

Yellow Shell

Small Dotted Buff

The known (more or less)

Middle-barred Minor

Double-striped Pug

True Lover's Knot

Antler

Twin-spot Carpet

Swallow-tailed Moth

Light Emerald

Small Rivulet

Lempke's Gold spot - squareness of the corner 'flashes'

Lempke's Gold Spot. Superb moth!

Mottled Beauty

Barred Straw

Common White Wave

Grey Dagger (presumed not Dark Dagger)

Straw Dot

Snout

Small Square-spot/Ingrailed Clay?

LYU

The known unknowns
(some probably obvious but just not checked yet)

Common Wainscot? Remember to check hindwings!

Smoky Wainscot? Check hindwings!

?

Small dusty Wave? (to be re-checked)