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
love Moths but can never remember names
keep em coming Hazel
Ray
a good laugh is better than a tonic
I am eyeing up daughters silver laundry basket as I type ;) It looks identical to yours…….
Cin J
Let me know when you've cracked it D (or cracked up!) lol
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks all, the Egg boxes are for them to crawl into. They kipped in there all day & I've just put the kit into the open (without the light) so the last of the stragglers can go & do what moths do at night.
It's known as the "Ikea" kit so guess where the laundry basket comes from!!
Shopping around you can do the lot for about 50/60 euros, & all the moths so far are in the UK except the Giant Peacock. I use the Concise guide to the Moths of Great Britain & Ireland as my main guide (Townsend & Waring).
There are probably numerous moth groups in the uk who would love to have a few more voluteers. I also use a Norfolk moths & a Hants moths website for further ID's.
This is an amazing and interesting thread Hazel, those moths are beautiful, your kit has certainly paid off with such a wonderful collection of species.
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Regards, Hazel
Hazel, this is also a really good website if you get stuck, a number of us use it
http://ukmoths.org.uk
Caroline in Jersey
Another great update Hazel with more gorgeous Moths. The Mullein Moth is a beauty, what great camouflage. You're doing a great job, please keep 'em coming.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Thanks for that site Germain. I've been trawling just about everywhere to try & find this little lad (or lass). It has no real distinguishing feautres. It may be faded but I'm not sure. It's 1cm nose to tail. Any ideas??
I only got the 2 photos with the camera poked in one of the holes I made in the laundry basket!
EDIT : I'm thinking it may be a Pinion-streaked snout, rather faded, perhaps left over from last Autumn. I'll have to wait & see what the boss say's!!
I had to wait a while for a non wet, non windy night so i continued with leaving the outside light on. There were a few of the usuals & then this beauty, a Netted Pug.
It looked a plain brown job sitting on the wall but when I looked at the photo, WOW!
This one, on the other hand looked much more impressive on the wall than in the photo, a Pale Tussock moth,
& a tiny little micro-moth, called a Tapestry moth because it eats all your furnishings, I hope it hasn't got stuck into our sofa!
Then on Friday I put the wine/sugar ropes out & the light trap too, this one on the ropes was a Minor Marbled,
The next morning at 6h00 I went to see what we had & there were 3 Giant Peacocks outside & 1 inside, plus 24 other moths, with over 20 species!! This is a photo I took later of the Giant Peacock moths, they are 4 to 6 inches & SO impressive,
I'll just show a few of the rest as I don't want to bore you with them all, a Cream spot Tiger
A Heart & Dart (very common)
a Shuttle-shaped Dart,
a Marbled Coronet
Flame shoulder, which I thought was very striking,
a Tawny prominent & the French name is Dragon, this is rather faded & I'm not 100% on the name, it doesn't look too much like a Dragon ( EDIT (22/6) Antoine has come back with a name "a Silver Cloud" which I've had before, so it's not a Tawny prominent)
an impressive Three-humped Prominent,
& a Coxcomb Prominent,
I think they are all called prominents as they have bits that stick up on the side view (not very technical Dahh!)
This moth was on the flat top of the light-trap & looked like a twig from the Walnut tree, so I never took its photo on the first check around the outside. I lifted the lid & did the inside of the trap & then noticed it was still there!! It's called a Buff tip,
This is an unknown at the moment, it may be a Pug, sitting oddly, but there are loads & it doesn't really match any of them,
& a couple of micro-moths, a Carnation Tortrix,
& a Cochylis atricapitana, couldn't find a common name, perhaps I'll make one up, looks like it's upside down too!!
Ah well, he must have been kipping! I can't wait now to do my next box, it's like my birthday when I go out, you never know what you're going to get!!
Morning Hazel, you certainly are getting some beautiful species of Moth, I never knew there were so many different types so thanks for this thread and beautiful close up photos.