Moth Night

I was in a dilemma for this week’s night of Moth trapping, the Friday night into Saturday had a forecast of rain, however the Thursday night was good, warm night giving a min of 15° with a nice easterly wind at 5mph, the sting was work Friday morning getting in at 6am so I’d have to be up very early if the trap went out Thursday night.  The decision was to put out the trap Thursday night,  get up 30mins earlier than normal, empty the trap and then on to work aiming for a 6:30am start so I could be away for 10:30am, plan made.

Friday morning came, I was up on time and approached the trap for 5:15am, the first Moth seen was a Swallow tailed, smiley face, then I saw the rest it was full, looks like I was going to be in work later than planned. I started a quick count and to see what I could ID straight away, highlights were the Swallow tailed’ (5), Burnished Brass (2), Mother of Pearl (1), and a Willow Beauty. At the end of the session it turned out to be the best night’s moth trapping for me so far with 24 species trapped, that was ID, with near on a hundred moths (lots of none ID micros) not forgetting the none moth of a Boatman beetle (1)  PS I was in work for 6:35am

Italic are new for the trap, Bold lifers

1. Aphomia sociella or Bee Moth – 1428 (1)
2. Burnished Brass – 2434 (2)
3. Clay – 2193 (1)
4. Common Wainscot – 2199 (2)
5. Common Footman – 2050(1)
6. Common Rustic agg (6)
7. Dark Arches – 2321 (10)
8. Foxglove Pug – 1817 (1)
9. Garden grass Veneer – 1293 (1)
10. Gothic – 2136 (3)
11. Heart and Dart – 2089 (1)
12. Large Yellow Underwing – 2107 (11)
13. Marbled Beauty – 2293 (13)
14. Marbled Minor agg (1)
15. Middle barred Minor – 2340 (1)
16. Mother of Pearl – 1405 (1)
17. Riband wave – 1713 (9)
18. Scalloped Oak – 1921 (1)
19. Small Fan-foot – 2492 (1)
20. Smoky Wainscot – 2198 (1)
21. Swallow tailed Moth – 1922 (5)
22. The Flame – 2098 (1)
23. The Uncertain – 2381 (1)
24. Willow Beauty – 1937 (1)

Swallow tailed Moth

Mother of Pearl

Burnished Brass

Small Fan-foot