26th May 2012

With another warm night forecast I put out both MV and actinic traps for the first time this year. 40 moths of 26 species in the MV; just 13 of 8 in the actinic! A handful of species new for the year but thestar was this beautiful Lime Hawkmoth, a species absent from the garden last year.

After photos of captive adults, wild adults, mating adults and resulting eggs here's a photo of a 1st instar larva - I currently have several dozen eating me out of house and hawthorn. Hopefully further pictures to follow.

24th May 2012

Still warm but a strong wind overnight kept moth numbers right down. A few first appearance of the year but the biggest surprise was the second garden record of Grey Pine Carpet, last trapped here in 2008.
Update: on checking photos of the 2008 record I'm fairly certain I mis-identified a poorly marked Spruce Carpet - this record is therefore promoted to a garden first!

23rd May 2012

The weather has improved dramatically and moth numbers have increased with a few micros beginning to appear. Syndemis musculana is fairly uncommon in my garden and I've never managed a particularly good photo so I was delighted when this very fresh individual.

16th May 2012

My final female Emperor moth emerged a couple of days ago and despite time and weather conditions being far from ideal (late afternoon, windy and cool) I put her outside in the hope of attracting a wild male. The brush structure protruding from the abdomen (1st picture) showed she was 'displaying' and around 45 minutes later a male finally appeared. It bumbled around in the garden for 15 minutes before I lost patience, netted him and placed him next to the female - mating started immediately (2nd picture). The result is in the 3rd picture!

 

30th April 2012

At last a reasonable night for trapping - if you ignore the heavy rain. Most of the moths were new for the year but the highlight was a very early Silver Y, all the more remarkable as I recorded only a handful of this species during the entire of last year. Scarce Tissue was also very welcome after being absent last year. I'm confident that the pug (picture below) is Golden-Rod but would welcome any comments. Caloptilia stigmatella was the highlight amongst a small number of micros.

10th April 2012

Finally, after 3 years of trying, I managed to attract a wild male Emperor Moth to the garden this afternoon using a captive-bred, 'displaying' female. But it was all over very quickly - the male appeared out of nowhere and landed by the container holding the female only to be seized and carried off by one of the local Robins! The photo is therefore of captive-bred moths.

30th March 2012

A second run out for the MV trap this year produced most of the usual suspects with pride of place going to a very smart Oak Beauty, just the third garden record.