Thursday 28 July 2016

Nantyffyllon yesterday.

             Bohemannia quadrimaculella, 3 more tapped from alder.

            Gelechid c 6-7mm long. Was thinking Teleiopsis diffinis but palps
            seem barred rather than banded. Carpatolechia fugitivella maybe?

Whiteford, Gower

Amongst 140+ species from the coast on the very hot night last Tuesday was this 7mm long moth. I'm completely stuck so any ideas very welcome. White head, dark tuft on thorax, black dots, white shading etc all make it look do-able but I can't get it.
Many thanks.

Monday 25 July 2016

micro ID help please

Some micros from Tuesday last week that I have failed to ID. Assistance greatly appreciated.

Coleophora sp

Cydia splendana ??


Wildflower Cafe, Fairwood

I picked a couple of Fleabane flowers with tufts in the head last week at the appropriately-named Wildflower Cafe and this stunner emerged this morning. Rather pleased as I've tried before without success.
35.061 Ptocheuusa paupella 5mm

Parc Slip last week

I set the trap on wednesday night last week and had about 60 species in total. A few highlights were my 3rd ever poplar grey, 3rd ever dark spectacle, 1st bordered beauty and agonopterix angelicella since 2014 and FFY of black arches, herald, dun-bar, beautiful hook-tip, rosy footman, dark marbled carpet, purple thorn, red-barred tortrix and Agriphila straminella. A few I'm not sure of too:

Gelechid
Gypsonoma sociana?


Phyllonorycter sp.









Then there's this plume which I initially thought was Adaina microdactyla but I now don't think it's small enough. It's not one I'm aware of having come across before though.


Another from Caswell

I think this is a female Rhopobota stagnana but it's new to me and not even in my book! S&P and Google images seem to back this up, but UKM only has a male.
Any thoughts? Thanks.
49.221 Rhopobota stagnana female 6mm

Sunday 24 July 2016

Micros from Caswell

41.003 Blastobasis lacticolella, possibly the same as the query below
Query 8mm. Perhaps same as above?

Here are a few photos from Monday night's trip to the cliffs of Caswell.
The Acrocercops brongniardella I potted thinking it would be an easy, striking, phyllonorycter but on a photo it obviously wasn't as it has big, curved palps but it did take some finding! Anyway, feeds on Holm Oak which is plentiful there so seems ok.
Ypsolopha nemorella feeds on the plentiful honeysuckle by the path.
Teleiodes sequax on Rock-rose. Reasonably confident on this one.
Scythris grandipennis. Plenty of  gorse for this one. 9mm long. Any other suggestions?
A query, 8mm long, which I suspect is a form of Blastobasis lacticolella so I've added one from the same night for comparison.
I'm still without my computer so can't check distributions in MapMate.


15.019 Acrocercops brongniardella

17.002 Ypsolopha nemorella

35.145 Teleiodes sequax

43.002 Scythris grandipennis



Creigiau - Mompha locupletella query

This colourful little, approx 5mm, beastie came to the trap on Friday night. Best match I've found is Mompha locupletella - grateful for confirmation/correction.



Merthyr mawr warren.

                      Pyrausta ostrinalis, plenty of the second generation on
                      the wing yesterday.

Saturday 23 July 2016

Nantyffyllon 18/7/16.

                    Bohemannia quadrimaculella tapped from Alder.
                    Moth No 899 for the Llynfi valley.

Friday 22 July 2016

Creigiau - Tuesday night

A warm night, with the minimum temperature staying at just about 20C. 130 moths of 48 species with at least 3 being new moths for the garden and me. New for the year were: Agapeta hamana ( abit wishy-washy but I think I'm right), Bird-cherry Ermine, Bud Moth, Clay Triple-lines (new for me), Zeiraphera isertana (new for me), Leopard Moth, Pyrausta purpuralis, Small Rufous (new for me if correct), Small yellow Wave (new for me), Pseudogyrotoza conwagana & Ruby Tiger.

Some of the colourful moths are shown below
Pseudogyrotoza conwagana
Purple Thorn

Pyrausta purpuralis

Small Yellow Wave
Not absolutely sure about the following so would appreciate confirmation/correction

Agapeta hamana

Small Rufous
Zeiraphera isertana

I also have some other micros that I am struggling with, but I'll post them separately.


Thursday 21 July 2016

Merthyr mawr, a few more.

                       Four spotted footman
                      Archer's dart
                     Agonopterix liturosa
                    Elachista triatomea
                   Pseudopostega crepusculella.
                   131 sp in my traps (55 micro, 76 macro). Highlights were -
                   Archips rosana, Agonopterix conterminella, Coleophora lixella,
                   Small purple barred, Cloaked minor, Brown tail, Dog's tooth,
                   Haworth's pug, Double kidney and 8 Garden tiger.

Prior's meadow, Gower

My colleague put the trap out in our Prior's meadow reserve near Three Crosses tuesday night but sadly the trap was rather disappointing (maybe because the generator ran out of fuel early on?). Nonetheless we had a few things that were good to see: one migrant in the shape of a silver Y, Argolamprotes micella, Eudonia delunella, Pammene fasciana, Aspilaopteryx tringipenella and a few that I'm not sure of:
1.Not sure
2.Not sure - Cydia?


3. robustella or alchimella?
4. Paraswammerdamia nebulella


5. Parornix - can it be got to species?


Wednesday 20 July 2016

Merthyr Mawr last night

Paul and I were accompanied by Graham Anderson for a long hot session at Merthyr Mawr NNR last night. At 3am I was dressed only in t-shirt, shorts and sandals, and the temperature was still in the 20s.

Given the conditions it wasn't surprising that the moths came thick and fast. I only ran my MV for two hours (due to an initial generator problem) and had around 100 species, with quite a few extras at my 6W actinics. There were lots of moths at Paul's MV lamp too.

Among the macros there was nothing as exciting as Chris's Star-wort, but a few nice records including Shore Wainscot, Brown Scallop, Brussels Lace (in good numbers), Muslin Footman, Round-winged Muslin, Beautiful Hook-tip, Haworth's Pug (numerous), Scarlet Tiger, Garden Tiger, Small Purple-barred and Satin Lutestring.

The micros were excellent and included several Chionodes distinctella (first Glamorgan record since 1979?), as well as Gypsonoma oppressana, Pseudopostegia crepusculella, Brachmia blandella, Agrolamprotes micella, Pyrausta ostrinalis (30 in one heath trap), Pyrausta cingulata, Yponomeuta plumbella, Bryotropha umbrosella, Mompha lacteella, Celypha cespitana and Eudonia delunella. A few photos below, but Paul will have better ones of many of these species.

Gypsonoma oppressana
Chionodes distinctella
Chionodes distinctella (different specimen)

Bryotropha umbrosella
Possible pale form of Bryotropha umbrosella (f. mundella)

Other insects included several glowing glow-worms and this rather smart caddis Grammotaulius nigropunctatus.

Caswell 18th July

A mothing friend was visiting from Devon and wanted to see Devonshire Wainscot so we went to Caswell Bay cliffs.
It was beautifully warm but the full moon did't look too promising and there was hardly anything coming in by midnight so we left the traps out and came back at dawn.
Thank goodness we did! By then there were 16 Devonshire Wainscot, several Northern Rustic (both new to my visitor), Annulets, Pyrausta cingulata etc.
The undoubted star of the show, though, was the aptly named Star-wort. There was one fresh one in the lower trap and a very worn one in the top trap, which would seem to indicate a colony nearby. There is no Sea Aster but there is Golden Samphire which has a similar flower which is what the larvae mainly eat. I'll have to have a larva search in a month or so!
This is a scarce moth that I've never seen in the wild and nor had my visitor so he was well chuffed with the night's catch. We also realised that although he had travelled 175 miles to get here we are actually in the same 100k SS grid square.

Full moon at Caswell Bay


Star-wort moth and Golden Samphire