Lindfield Moth Diary - November ’08

e-mail: moths@littlesnails.com

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Friday 28 - Sunday 30 November 2008

Either too cold, too frosty, too snowy or too wet.

Thursday 27 November 2008

Weather: Mild (for time of year), overcast, very light wind.

Day 447… In the summer I find it takes a couple of nights after a cold spell for things to get back up to speed but I suppose, in winter (notional rather than actual) moths have to be prepared to take advantage of whatever opportunity arises. With this thought in mind I shouldn’t have been surprised by the number of moths we had in the trap this morning - I had, after all, put the trap out purely because the forecast was for a dry and frost free night but also with the expectation of catching little or nothing. The final tally was eleven moths of eight different species, which is, I guess, about as good as it’s likely to get at this time of year. I’ve been wracking my brains trying to work out what new species (amongst the "macros") we can hope for at the moment and short of the possibility of various, unpredictable immigrants I can’t think of anything. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

2 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Lasiocampidae

1 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

1 Cypress Carpet Thera cupressata Geyer
2 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.
1 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

2 Satellite Eupsilia transversa Hufn.
1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.
1 Red-line Quaker Agrochola lota Cl.

Monday 24 - Wednesday 26 November 2008

No trap - too cold and frosty.

Sunday 23 November 2008

Far too cold and frosty (and snowy) for any trapping but I have had another photo of the as yet unidentified Blastobasis, beautifully set by Martin Honey, a remarkable product of an exercise of extreme fiddliness considering its wingspan is only 12.5mm.

Blastobasis Sp. set specimen

Saturday 22 November 2008

Weather: Cold, showers at first, becoming clear, fairly windy.

Day 446… Not much to report in the trap this morning, not really very surprising, in fact, I found it quite surprising there was anything in there.

Of much greater interest though is the photograph (below) I received yesterday from Martin Honey at the Natural History Museum. It is of the dissected genitalia of the Blastobasis Sp. that we caught last weekend. The opinions expressed as to its identity so far suggest that it’s not adustella or or lacticolella, which is interesting but more interesting is that it could be marmorosella or walsinghami, neither of which appear to be on the British list. The esteemed gentlemen who are involved in its identification seem to be drawn to Madeira for inspiration - intriguing. I’m nothing more than a fascinated bystander in all this but I can’t wait to find out what the final answer is.

Today’s catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Geometridae

1 Epirrita Sp.
1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.
2 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.

Blastobasis Sp. dissection

Friday 21 November 2008

Weather: Cool, partly overcast, breezy at first becoming very windy by morning.

Day 445… Oh happy day! I wasn’t expecting much this morning, after all it had been a noticeably cooler night than the previous one and it was also surprisingly windy when I made my lonely trudge (Loobi’s interest wanes somewhat once numbers drop below about twenty - degrees or moths) down the garden this morning. My attention was immediately drawn to a curious silhouette hanging, upside down, under the edge of one of the lapped over boards of the nearby fence. Closer examination confirmed my initial hunch: a Herald! A moth to which I had given almost "Holy Grail" status, especially given that "Waring" uses adjectives such as common and frequent to describe this species, it almost seemed unfair that we hadn’t seen one. Bizarrely, on Wednesday evening, at the Sussex Moth Group autumn meeting I was complaining to Steve Teale about this very moth and how it it was many years since I had last seen one and now, it being late November, the chances of seeing one this year were slim to say the least. I kind of wish that I had been talking about Death’s Head or Oleander Hawkmoths, but I’ll settle with a Herald for now. This is the first definite new species since the 1 October. We have had three others in the meantime though, two of which are still awaiting identification and the possible Viburnum Button. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Lasiocampidae

2 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

1 Epirrita Sp.
1 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.
3 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

1 Yellow-line Quaker Agrochola macilenta Hb.
1 Herald Scoliopteryx libatrix Linn.

Herald

Thursday 20 November 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, breezy.

Day 444… As the old cliché goes: "What a difference a day makes" after last nights cold and clear near no-show this morning’s catch was by any standards (well, certainly by mine) a resounding success. Eleven moths of seven different species I would rate as a pretty good return for the latter part of November. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Lasiocampidae

2 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

1 Epirrita Sp.
2 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.
1 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.
3 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Weather: Cold, mainly clear, still.

Day 443… The only good thing that can be said of last night’s weather was hat it was dry. I think it’s fair to say the catch rather reflected that and was as follows:

Geometridae

1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.

Noctuidae

1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Way, way too wet.

Monday 17 November 2008

Weather: Cold, overcast with a little rain at first, clearing, still.

Day 442… At about 11:30 last night when I went out for my habitual check on the trap I wasn’t in the least surprised that there seemed to be very little going on, a Chestnut perched on the side and a Light-brown Apple Moth on one of the perspex covers and that was about it, the temperature by this time had already fallen a good deal from that of earlier in the evening. This morning’s inspection revealed fourteen moths of eleven species in and around the trap which frankly, was not only surprising but also a little confusing, most of these moths appear to have turned up after midnight when the ambient temperature had fallen to nearly zero. Of all the moths in the trap the most interesting was by far the smallest, a White-triangle Slender, only the second one we’ve seen. The catch was as follows:

Gracillariidae

1 White-triangle Slender Caloptilia stigmatella Fabr.

Tortricidae

2 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Geometridae

1 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
1 Spruce Carpet Thera britannica Turn.
1 Epirrita Sp.
1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.
1 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

2 Satellite Eupsilia transversa Hufn.
1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.
1 Brick Agrochola circellaris Hufn.
1 Yellow-line Quaker Agrochola macilenta Hb.

White-triangle Slender

Sunday 16 November 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, breezy.

Day 441… Almost identical conditions to those of last night but a slightly larger number of moths in the trap. Nothing particularly earth shattering though, probably the particularly fresh and strongly marked Red-green Carpet would count as the highlight. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Pterophoridae

1 Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla Linn.

Lasiocampidae

1 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

1 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
1 Spruce Carpet Thera britannica Turn.
3 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

1 Brick Agrochola circellaris Hufn.

Red-green Carpet

Saturday 15 November 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, breezy.

Day 440… I must admit I was a tad disappointed to only find six moths in the trap this morning, the very mild weather suggested it should have been busier. One of the six (not actually in the trap but on the fence nearby) was a tiny little thing that I could have easily have overlooked which, having photographed, I couldn’t identify so I posted a photo on the ever reliable ukmicromoths forum. I can only assume that there were a lot of bored people with no moths of their own to examine because the effect of my posting was a flurry of replies from a selection of eminent sources offering all sorts of different opinions as to its identity but very little by way of a definitive answer. The conclusion was that it was probably a Blastobasis of some sort (I thought lacticolella (decolorella as was) though one opinion suggested it might be a species not recorded as yet in the UK) for a final verdict it’s going to be dispatched to Martin Honey at the Natural History Museum(!) first thing Monday morning. Phoebe thinks I’m cruel and heartless and should let it go. The catch was as follows:

Blastobasidae

1 Blastobasis?

Pterophoridae

1 Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla Linn.

Geometridae

1 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata Hufn.

Noctuidae

1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.
1 Brick Agrochola circellaris Hufn.
1 Yellow-line Quaker Agrochola macilenta Hb.

Blastobasis?

Friday 14 November 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, drizzle at first, light wind.

Day 439… Considering the weather conditions I must admit to being a little disappointed with the catch, but really I suppose I shouldn’t be, it is mid November after all. This thought was rather underlined by highlight of the catch, our first Winter Moth of the season. The catch was as follows:

Lasiocampidae

1 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

1 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata Hufn.
1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata Linn.
2 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.
1 Mottled Umber Erannis defoliaria Cl.

Noctuidae

1 Red-line Quaker Agrochola lota Cl.

Winter Moth

Thursday 13 November 2008

Another clear, cold night so there seemed to be little point in putting out the trap, especially as warmer cloudy conditions have been forecast for the end of the week.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Weather: Cold, clear, frosty, little wind.

Day 438… Ah-ha! a dry night at last, the fact that the temperature was set to drop to somewhere near zero was a pain in the posterior though. Got the trap out regardless but with limited results: four moths, three species, one of which, the Cypress Carpet, was the first since the summer, the next, the inaccurately named Scarce Umber was the first since last November and finally there was a Sprawler. The catch was as follows:

Geometridae

1 Cypress Carpet Thera cupressata Geyer
2 Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria Hb.

Noctuidae

1 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.

Cypress Carpet Scarce Umber

Tuesday 11 November 2008

And so on and so forth…

Saturday 08 - Monday 10 November 2008

Friday night started out cold and clear so there seemed little point in putting the trap out and since then the nights have been just too windy and wet for me to have even considered it. However, I did secure our first Mottled Umber of the season when it came and landed on the kitchen window on Saturday night. I’ve been expecting to see one of these for some time now as our first record of the species last year was on 25 October.

There has been a little more movement in the case of the mystery Epiphyas (or what ever it is), actually it’s more "no news is good news" than anything. John Langmaid now has the moth in his possession, as a set specimen (many thanks to Tony Davis for that) and it has been seen by a number of other people as well, none of whom believe that it’s postvittana. John, will though, be dissecting it in the near future so, hopefully, we’ll have an answer as to its identity fairly soon.

While this weather’s so awful and I haven’t got any moths to look at I’ve been contemplating an extension to my "Porter’s Vernaculars" campaign. After dwelling on the apparently arbitrary distinction between microlepidoptera and macrolepidoptera (surely, by this definition a Leopard Moth, Common Swift or Six-Spot Burnet (to name but a few) should all count as a "micros" as they are all in the top half of the taxonomic list, in amongst the genuine "micros"), I have thought that rather than doing away with this distinction why not extend it to a third category - mesolepidoptera (meso - intermediate or mid)? This new category should include families such as the Tortricidae, Pyralidae and Oecophoridae whose members include many species that are easily identified by visual characteristics and require far less experience and expertise than, say, families like the Nepticulidae for instance, it should also include those anomalous families, currently considered "macro" such as Cossidae and Zygaenidae. By creating this new category it would allow those people that say: "oh, I don’t do micros" to pay more attention, while still remaining consistent, to species like Long-horned Flat-body, Mother of Pearl or Lichen Button without having to commit fully to all the really tricky species which are currently lumped into the same boat. Just a thought…

Mottled Umber (Saturday night)

Friday 07 November 2008

Weather: Mild, heavy showers, windy.

Day 437… A cooler and wetter night than I was expecting, which in conjunction with the stronger winds resulted in something of a drop-off in moth numbers. The catch was really just a recycling of the species we’ve seen on recent nights with the addition of a Beautiful Plume. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

2 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Pterophoridae

1 Beautiful Plume Amblyptilia acanthadactyla Hb.

Geometridae

1 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata Hufn.
1 Spruce Carpet Thera britannica Turn.
3 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.

Noctuidae

1 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.
1 Satellite Eupsilia transversa Hufn.
1 Yellow-line Quaker Agrochola macilenta Hb.

Beautiful Plume

Thursday 06 November 2008

Weather: Mild, steady light rain, little wind.

Day 436… Bit of a soggy old night, the trap looks like it’ll take a fortnight to dry out completely unless there’s an improvement in the weather. Amongst the the moths we caught last night was a Spruce Carpet, a fairly infrequently seen moth (for us at any rate - the books say it’s pretty abundant) and our first of the autumn and also a very fresh Pale Mottled Willow, nearly a month after our previous record and three weeks later than our last record of ’07. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Geometridae

2 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
1 Spruce Carpet Thera britannica Turn.
4 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.

Noctuidae

1 Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba Linn.
2 Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum Linn.
2 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.
1 Satellite Eupsilia transversa Hufn.
1 Red-line Quaker Agrochola lota Cl.
1 Pale Mottled Willow Paradrina clavipalpis Scop.

Spruce Carpet

Wednesday 05 November 2008

Weather: Mild, partly clear at first, windy.

Day 435… Firstly, I’d like to wish everyone a "Happy Obama Day!" Right, now for the important stuff: Not quite as mild and an awful lot windier than it’s been for the past few nights. This had the effect of knocking numbers back a little, still good but not quite the variety of Monday and Tuesday. There was one newcomer to add to the recent selection; a Common Plume, the first since early September. The catch was as follows:

Pterophoridae

1 Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla Linn.

Geometridae

2 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
1 Epirrita Sp.
4 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.

Noctuidae

1 Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba Linn.
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum Linn.
3 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.
1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.
1 Red-line Quaker Agrochola lota Cl.
1 Sallow Xanthia icteritia Hufn.

Tuesday 04 November 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, drizzle at first, still.

Day 434… A much damper night than last night but still mild. Like yesterday we had fourteen species in the trap but, unlike yesterday, five of these were different from those of yesterday’s catch, so nineteen species in two days in November - not bad!. The highlight of the catch was a Grey Shoulder-knot, the only time we’ve seen this species before was back in March this year, so now we’ve got both a pre and post hibernation record. It was also the first time we’ve seen more than one Satellite in the catch. The catch was as follows:

Oecophoridae

1 White-shouldered House-moth Endrosis sarcitrella Linn.

Tortricidae

1 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Geometridae

2 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
3 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata Hufn.
2 Epirrita Sp.
2 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.

Noctuidae

1 Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes Hb.
1 Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum Linn.
2 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.
1 Grey Shoulder-knot Lithophane ornitopus ssp. lactipennis Dadd
3 Satellite Eupsilia transversa Hufn.
1 Brick Agrochola circellaris Hufn.
2 Yellow-line Quaker Agrochola macilenta Hb.
1 Angle Shades Phlogophora meticulosa Linn.

Epirrita Sp. (alternative flavour) Grey Shoulder-knot

Monday 03 November 2008

Weather: Mild (comparatively), overcast, light wind.

Day 433… At last! A night of half decent conditions in prospect, so it was with absolutely no hesitation that I brushed off the trap and got it out in the garden and was, this morning, rewarded with the best catch for nearly a month. Four firsts for the year too: a November Moth (well an epirrita Sp. of some description to be more accurate - stange that - vagueness being more accurate?), two December Moths, which I rate as one of my favourite moths - cute furry little fellows, a Sprawler and lastly and far less seasonally typical a Rusty Dot Pearl, last year we were seeing these throughout August, but not one this year, admittedly we did see one in late November and another in December last year too. The catch was as follows:

Tortricidae

2 Light-brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana Walker

Pyralidae

1 Rusty Dot Pearl Udea ferrugalis Hb.

Lasiocampidae

1 December Moth Poecilocampa populi Linn.

Geometridae

2 Red-green Carpet Chloroclysta siterata Hufn.
2 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata Hufn.
1 Epirrita Sp.
4 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria Linn.

Noctuidae

2 Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes Hb.
2 Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum Linn.
1 Sprawler Brachionycha sphinx Hufn.
1 Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.
1 Red-line Quaker Agrochola lota Cl.
1 Sallow Xanthia icteritia Hufn.
2 Angle Shades Phlogophora meticulosa Linn.

Rusty Dot Pearl December Moth
Epirrita Sp.

Epirrita Species Sprawler

Saturday 01 - Sunday 02 November 2008

Not exactly the most auspicious start to the month, too cold and frosty then too wet.

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