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
Thanks Paul & Wendy. There were less than 50 in this weeks trap & NO new ones. I had a whole day with nothing to do, WOW! I did a bit of housework instead. I think the weather was a bit chilly for the moths, it went down to 13°C overnight. I'm hopeful for next week though, it'll be hot & from Tuesday (so they say).
I did another session on the 17th July & had a good lot of moths, around 130 with 57 species of which 13 were new. There were a few worn specimens so lots of possibles!! Here are the best of them,
A Jersey Tiger, quite common by day as well as by night,
a beautiful Leopard moth,
a big Jersey Mocha
Undoubtably my favourite a Lappet, which the French name suggests is like a dead oak leaf,
a Svenssons Copper Underwing, which I identified from an ordinary Copper Underwing by the white tips on it's labial palps!!(Thanks for tip UK Moths)
note the white (light) tips, the other is light all the way up the front,
a Marbled Green,
this is a possible Least Yellow Underwing,
& there were a few small one's, a Euzophera pinguis,
a possible Scarce Footman,
& finally a Yponomeuta species,
Thanks for staying with me on this, it's a bit of a Saga really!!
Oooh have to go for a bit of favouritism on this one - Jersey Tiger all the way and yes a day flyer - Horse tends to get a bit miffed when they try to fly up his nose :) also rather like the Leopard moth
C in J
Cin J
I do like that Marbled Green & the last 'ypon' one, needless to say not commonly found in my back yard! Lol. Joking aside, this thread continues to be very interesting indeed! Thanks HinGE
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Hazel this thread represents an unbelievable amount of work, trapping, recording and identifying all the ones you've posted plus the hundreds more that were repeats. you've shown such enthusiasm and dedication - thank you! It's really opened my eyes to the variety of moths around - it seems that thee are far more than there are butterflies.
Hi Hazel, yet another stunning set of Moths. I agree that your Lappet is easily my favourite from this bunch but I do like the (possible) Least Yellow Underwing, the camouflage is stunning on that one.!! I had to look up ‘labial palp’ and even at that, I’m still not 100% sure if I know what you’re talking about in regards to this. All fantastic shots though, you must be very pleased with your tally so far.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Found this for you P(FdL)A
The labial palps have a sensory function and in some nocturnal moths they are used as hearing organs.
Any clearer??
Thanks Wendy, it's taken me two days to find your post so it seems that my own labial palps are defective or I would possibly have sensed your post long before this.!! But yes, much clearer now, I'll keep a look out for this.
Better late than never is my take on things!! Hope you keep your LB's discreetly out of sight P(FdL)A ... or you'll frighten the horses!! Lol
Gosh Wendy, thats a really good sketch, shows all the bits clearly. I never knew what they were for, just that they had them!!Thanks for posting it. I've a whole lot more moths to put on in the next day or so & hoping to do another trap tonight, weather permitting. I think my palps need calming too!