We are doing a moth survey from of our garden this year for a study in the département, but while waiting for the moth traps to arrive I've been leaving an outside light on & photographing all the visitors. Since then I decided to start the "sugar trap". I cooked up a litre of cheap wine & 1 Kg of sugar & put 2 natural ropes in the mixture & left to soak for a few days.
Then last night I suspended the ropes between 2 trees in the orchard (photo taken this morning)
Then while Ron was watching the Golf on TV, I was nipping in & out to see if there were any moths having a tipple. The first time I went out there were 2 who stayed until I went to bed & were gone at 5am when I went out to see if there were any more. I was really chuffed as I didn't think I'd get much.
This is a Herald :
.
This is Angle Shades
You can see they are both eating, I only hope they didn't have a hangover this morning!! I've left the ropes out so maybe I'll get something else tonight.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Probably me Hazel, sounds nice lol,those moths are pretty, very 'leaf like'
Terry
cheers Terry
my photo's here
Lovely Moths Hazel and a great way to draw them in, very clever.!! I'm with Terry as well though, put my name down for a yard of your delicious rope.!!
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Think I'll leave the cheap wine and sugar to the men!!!!
This promises to be a really interesting thread Hazel - I wouldn't be able to identify a single moth I don't think but am intrigued to see what will turn up on your rope.m Keep updating us!
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
Thanks for the interest folks. The following night there were none & I started to worry that I should have resoaked the rope, but it still tasted nice (only a little finger touch honest!). So I left it out again & got 2 more.This is a Setaceous Hebrew Character (I love their names)
& a White Streak (I think, it needs verifying by the expert)
Then last night I had 3, dear old Angle shades who was back for another slurp,
a Knot grass, which I've had numerous times as a caterpillar but never seen the moth, which would hide very well on a tree trunk,
& a Bright-line Brown-eye (great name again)
which doesn't want to load!! Will try later.
I hope you enjoy these too!
Great photo's Hazel, love the names, think I'll come back as a moth in the Gironde estuary Lol
Thanks Terry.
I still can't upload that last moth, not sure why.
EDIT : This is the Bright-line Brown-eye moth which wouldn't load, I then reduced the name of the photo by half & it loaded fine. That's weird!!
Another new one last night, & this time it was new for our region! Fame at last!
It's called a "Figure of Eighty" which comes from the squiggle on the wings.
Well done on your Figure of Eighty! You will have everyone descending on you if you're not careful! Great to see how many different species you're getting.
Hi Hazel. I spotted your update on the phone yesterday but couldn't see any of the photos, now that I'm on the PC I can see them all and I have to say that they are just fantastic.!! I've always fancied doing the thing with the white sheet and a bright light but I have to admit that your technique with the rope, the wine and the sugar looks to be a more interesting way of going about this. The only problem that I can foresee is that I may not be in such a great state of consciousness to actually take any photos after the initial rope preparations have been carried out.!! I suppose it could be worth a try though....for the sake of science you understand.!!
Hi Hazel, are you particularly good at identifying moths? As I got a picture of one and I posted it in another thread. I'd post it here but I'm on mobile. Edit: Here's a link, I'm not sure if it will work... http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/13609/DSC00082.JPG
Gus
Blog Flickr and I have a youtube channel but not updated much.