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
I've combined 2 traps in this update. The first on 28th July had lots of small moths & this pretty Snout, note his long "labial palpes",
& some of the tiddlers were pretty too, an Agriphila Straminella,
an Oncocera semirubella, sorry I can't get it up the right way!!
& finally a Small Ranunculus,
I then did another trap on the night of 1/2 August. WOW. I took over 350 photos between 5h45 & 7h45 in the morning. I had over 230 moths, 76 species & another 17 for my tally for this year. Some were really unusual for this area so it was very inspiring!! These are the best of them, a Crambidae again, Acylolomia tentaculella,
& another Metacrambus carectellus,
an Elachistidae Ethmia dodecea
& another one, Ethmia bipunctella,
A pretty green one but no English name, Phaigrammia etruscaria,
a Least Ribbon wave (one of the rare ones)
a Mullein wave,
a Blood-vein which is quite common in the day too,
a little Leicithoceridae of doubtful idebtification,
a Beautiful Gypsy Moth,
a Tree-lichen Beauty with it's excellent camouflage,
rarest of the day was this Great Dart,
& finally this lovely moth which is aptly named Beautiful Marbled!
Thanks for looking & hope there is something for everyone here!
More pretty moths for us HinGE ... that last one is so unusual! What an absorbing subject you have chosen, must take you many painstaking hours to ID them!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
You don't want to know Wendy, but I am getting quicker as I start to recognise the regulars!! Some of them have got a season ticket for a nights B&B in the trap!!
My goodness Hazel you've had some fantastic visitors this year - I can't believe how many species you've seen but it must be getting close to a record for one garden!
Thanks John, I've been really pleased with the results, I'm at 256 species at the moment & my target is 300 before we move in mid-September. We're not going far so it'll be interesting to do it all again next year from the new garden!
Another great collection to delight us, Hazel. The last four in particular are very pretty.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Did you know that some falling Pink Magnolia petals metamorphose into Marbled moths? ... How beautiful.
You learn something new every day Edge! They are certainly well camouflaged for sitting on flowers though.
Another 2 sessions on the 6th & 10th August & another 19 newbies. Our weather is so unsettled that it's tricky to pick the best nights. The mosquitoes are out in force at dawn looking for an easy breakfast & my hands, holding the camera, seem to be their prime target. I ended up running off to the garage to finish the photos with the trap in one hand & camera in the other!! All of this in the shade of a Walnut tree which is said to ward off the mossies, not around here anyway!
These are the best of the moths, a Dotted footman
Buff Arches
an Old Lady that came around a lovely flower called 'Belle de nuit', I don't know it's English name, but it's flowers open at night & it attracts Hawkmoths too,
a Lobster moth,
& a couple of micro moths on the 6th,
& then these are from the 10th, my favourite, a Black V-moth,
a rare Lorimers Rustic,
& lots of micro moths, most of the identities are possibles as there are lots to choose from so I'll whizz through them,
The next one is a beautiful coppery Pyralidae,
This one had lost one of it's weirdly designed ladial palpes,
& lots of Tortricidae moths,
an Yponomeutidae
the final one I saw after I loaded the photos on the computer, while I had been taking a shot of one little moth, it was peeking over the top to see what was going on!
I've no idea which one it was!
Thanks for looking.
Lovely selection HinGE, some beauties in there & that just great final pic, wonderful capture! Your plant is a Mirabilis (jalapa), I had one a couple of years ago with multicoloured flowers! Translates as Beauty of the Night, which aptly describes the moth on it, aka 'the four o'clock flower' & 'marvel of Peru'!