Mostly Moths 2017

I thought I'd start a new thread for 2017 & THIS is a link to the previous thread. To newcomers, all are welcome & you can post your moths, identified or not, on here. Any items related to moths too & of course caterpillars (all contributions of caterpillars welcomed by Wendy who is their substitute mum!)

Here are my first of the year, one from yesterday morning on the door, White-speck,

Which encouraged me to do a trap under the garden table & the White-speck came back along with a Black-spotted Chestnut

Unfortunately they were both dead, no sign of the spider, but it may be living under the garden table. Ah well, I suppose we all have to eat! I don't think I'll be doing another one for a while, this is just 2 or 3 warm days before it gets cold again.

  • I set up my 2 new traps on the reserve on Sunday night. i ran this one

    from 19h30 to 23h30. There is a white energy saver 20W plus a 25W UV energy saver & they both run from an invertor (12V/230V) on a 12V battery.

    I also did the small Ikea trap with a 12V 40W bulb attached direct to the battery, this is an earlier photo

    I set them up about 100m apart as rain was possible & so I didn't want to be too far away. Anyway it was amazing. I had aound 100 moths in total with 27 species. It all worked really well. I had widened my original frame from 90cm to 150cm & used a mosquito sheet to tie around it & this allowed more light to pass through & at the same time somewhere nice for the moths to sit. I did the count in the morning around the small trap as a lot of the one's on the big trap migrated across after I turned it off, but the small trap had it's own lot of admirers too. This was one of the egg boxes in the morning

    I won't bore you with all the photos, but here are some of them, starting with my favourite, a Valeria jaspidea (no English name found)

    a Small Brindled Beauty,

    Dotted Chestnut

    & a couple of micros, Agonopterix ocellana,

    Agonopterix pallorella

    Tortricodes alternella

    & an Acleris sp which I can't pin down, if anyone knows?

    & finally Ypsolopha ustella, a very variable species,

    I think I can say that my season has well & truly started!

  • Looks to be a great inventive set-up H, thanks for the tip about mosquito netting, see what you mean!  Stuck in this wet/windy/chill weather pattern here with coastal gales all night .. again!!

    Have sent your query to Steve Ogden (the guy who ID'd my LBAM), let you know if he can say exactly what it is!

    Needless to say am green with envy!!!

  • Thanks Wendy, here are another couple of shots of the tricky one

    There are several one's that are very close & it may be a chop job!

  • Oh no H ... not the dreaded butcher's knife again!!! Lol

  • I've been tempted at times, but just can't bring myself to kill a poor little moth just to find out if it's name is Fred or Paul or Wendy!LOL

  • By the same token I just couldn't own a display cabinet full of dead pinned specimens, let alone pay money for them!

  • I know, I went to the museum at Bordeaux to see what they have in the way of specimens from Charente maritime that we could use as historical data for our Catalogue. They had 130 cases of moths all unclassified & never likely to be. What a waste. I then later contacted a museum in Germany because they had some references to moths captured here too. They said I could go along & look at their boxes anytime! I can't remember the exact numbers but at present rate of progress it will be 500 years before they are all noted & on-line.

    I've seen boxes & boxes of the most beautiful hawkmoths. It's tragic really & so unnecessary, a bit like collecting birds eggs I suppose.

  • Answer from Steve .....Sorry, can't help with this one - appears a bit worn and may be a species not found in the Uk.

    Hazel C said:
    here are another couple of shots of the tricky one

    ... sent him the new ones just in case!

  • Hazel C said:
    So it could be a suprise moth, keep us allin suspenders until it hatches! LOL

    Was as expected H .....

    He fluttered away happily in the sunshine next day but wish I'd kept him as yesterday I found this on the house wall ... flushed it whilst gardening methinks

    Could have set up a breeding station & seen what the eggs look like!!

  • Gosh, they are around early! You could keep the female for a few days (if it's not too late) & if she's already had a liaison you may get some eggs anyway! Good that you've got the photos of caterpillar to pupa to moth to prove their identities!