Wretched!.........

............and that's an understatement. The mothing has been terrible of late; so bad in fact that I've only had a handful of trap nights in April. Incredibly, this time last year I'd already recorded 54 species of macro. However this year I reached just 30 species on 24th April. So the photos below are ALL the highlights since my last post 2 weeks ago.

BTW- Thanks for the English lesson Mr. Grimsey, my homework will be in on time this week. Spell check doesn't seem to work on Blog titles. Mind you, 'Retched' is appropriate too!

Swallow Prominent

 Powdered Quaker

Both the above represent half the catch on 24th April. The 2 other moths were an Angle Shades and a late Early Grey.

 985 Carnation Tortrix Cacoecimorpha pronubana

Seen on a rare sunny spell during the day on 23rd April.

 On 19th April I found this larval web on a small Hawthorn at Broom GPs. I think they are Brown-tail caterpillars............

List for Home Wood- 25th May

Here is a belated list from a productive night's mothing last week; We used 2 x 80w Mercury Vapour lights and an Actinic/BLB combo. We then left one of the MV's in the wood for the rest of the night and Trent collected it in the morning.  Despite a few hiccups with the cheapo MVs 'dropping out' occasionally we managed to do quite well. Barely a breeze and good temperatures of a constant 14°C obviously helped. Many thanks to Andy Grimsey for his help in trying to keep up! It's a steep leaning curve this mothin' lark.

I am still experiencing major problems with blogger as I can't sign in! We are a week into the glitch now......is anyone else finding this problem? I can't comment on posts, even on my own blog!

Beautiful Hook-tip

1 of 2 caught in the Actinic/UV combo

Home Catapillar

I don't know much about larvae- I need to get a decent book I suppose?

More to come in the next few days.

Anyway the list, 238 moths of 64 species-

• 0017 Hepialus lupulinus Common Swift 29 NFS
• 0143 Nematopogon metaxella 30 NFS
• 0150 Adela reaumurella 1
• 0246 Tinea semifulvella 1 NFS
• 0417 Argyresthia spinosella 1 NFS
• 489-526 Coleophora sp.??? 1 NFS To be Confirmed
• 0601 Elachista albifrontella 1 NFS
• 0620 Elachista gangabella 1 NFS
• 0649 Esperia sulphurella 1 NFS
• 0892 Mompha subbistrigella 1 NFS
• 0970 Pandemis cerasana Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix 3 NFS
• 1011 Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 1 NFS
• 1082 Hedya pruniana Plum Tortrix 1 NFS
• 1083 Hedya nubiferana Marbled Orchard Tortrix 1 NFS
• 1142 Epinotia tedella 1 NFS
• 1176 Epiblema trimaculana 1 NFS
• 1219 Lathronympha strigana 1 NFS
• 1334 Scoparia ambigualis 6 NFS
• 1392 Udea olivalis 8 NFS
• 1680 Cyclophora punctaria Maiden's Blush 2
• 1693 Scopula floslactata Cream Wave 4
• 1727 Xanthorhoe montanata Silver-ground Carpet 20 NFS
• 1738 Epirrhoe alternata Common Carpet 4 NFS
• 1760 Chloroclysta siterata Red-green Carpet 1
• 1764 Chloroclysta truncata Common Marbled Carpet 1 NFS
• 1768 Thera obeliscata Grey Pine Carpet 1
• 1776 Colostygia pectinataria Green Carpet 6
• 1778 Hydriomena impluviata May Highflyer 2 NFS
• 1819 Eupithecia exiguata Mottled Pug 2
• 1834 Eupithecia vulgata Common Pug 1
• 1837 Eupithecia subfuscata Grey Pug 2 NFS
• 1844 Eupithecia indigata Ochreous Pug 3 NFS
• 1893 Macaria liturata Tawny-barred Angle 1 NFS
• 1904 Plagodis dolabraria Scorched Wing 3 NFS
• 1906 Opisthograptis luteolata Brimstone Moth 4
• 1937 Peribatodes rhomboidaria Willow Beauty 2 NFS
• 1944 Hypomecis punctinalis Pale Oak Beauty 10 NFS
• 1950 Parectropis similaria Brindled White-spot 1 NFS
• 1958 Lomographa temerata Clouded Silver 4 NFS
• 1961 Campaea margaritata Light Emerald 11 NFS
• 1978 Hyloicus pinastri Pine Hawk-moth 1 NFS
• 1981 Laothoe populi Poplar Hawk-moth 1 NFS
• 2011 Pterostoma palpina Pale Prominent 1
• 2014 Drymonia dodonaea Marbled Brown 1 NFS
• 2028 Calliteara pudibunda Pale Tussock 7 NFS
• 2043 Eilema sororcula Orange Footman 5
• 2060 Spilosoma lubricipeda White Ermine 1 NFS
• 2061 Spilosoma luteum Buff Ermine 5 NFS
• 2089 Agrotis exclamationis Heart and Dart 3 NFS
• 2102 Ochropleura plecta Flame Shoulder 1
• 2126 Xestia c-nigrum Setaceous Hebrew Character 1 NFS
• 2199 Mythimna pallens Common Wainscot 1 NFS
• 2302 Rusina ferruginea Brown Rustic 4 NFS
• 2333 Apamea anceps Large Nutmeg 9 NFS
• 2337x Oligia strigilis agg. Marbled Minor agg. 3 NFS To be confirmed
• 2380 Charanyca trigrammica Treble Lines 8 NFS
• 2387 Caradrina morpheus Mottled Rustic 1 NFS
• 2410 Protodeltote pygarga Marbled White Spot 1 NFS
• 2422 Pseudoips prasinana Green Silver-lines 2 NFS
• 2434 Diachrysia chrysitis Burnished Brass 1 NFS
• 2450 Abrostola tripartita Spectacle 1 NFS
• 2473 Laspeyria flexula Beautiful Hook-tip 2 NFS
• 2474 Rivula sericealis Straw Dot 2 NFS
• 2477 Hypena proboscidalis Snout 1 NFS

Instant Garden Assembly 15/04

After a long year of nurturing, feeding and storing Emperor Moth caterpillars it was finally time to see the fruits of our labours. That day came on 15th April when the usual morning recce around the rearing container presented more than just a few motionless cocoons. Out of the 7 left from the original 12 larvae there were 2 newly emerged females and 1 male.

Newly emerged female 1

 Female no. 2- also newly emerged

After a few hours they are fully developed and ready for action. They have got to be one of the most striking moths in the British Isles.

Female 1

They are quite variable too, in size and colour. Even though they were fed at the same rate from the same food source. In this case Hawthorn.

Female 2

I kept the male back in a pot inside for the time being and took the females outside. After which I let him go to find his way in the wide world. 

Captive bred Male

What happened next really took me by surprise. Whilst working, Louie came in with a grin on his face saying " I've just caught an Emperor". So I took a look and indeed he had caught a male. The mesh container with the two females in couldn't have been out more than 15 minutes.

Male attracted by the females

This is the '1st on the scene' male. Shortly after that all hell broke loose as I decided to take the females out of the mesh container and put both on a garden table.

Within about 10 minutes we had 5 male Emperors winging their way around the garden, slowly spiraling there way towards the females.

At one point, female 1, the smaller of the two had three suiters all fighting furiously for her attention. But there can only be one winner and after both females were successfully paired, the others melted away almost as quickly as they had arrived. Shortly after mating I put the females on the Hawthorn hedge and as dusk approached they flew off into the gloom. Later on a female (presumably one of mine) came crashing into the trap! I let her go outside the front of the house and haven't seen them since.

Male-deceased

In nature there are always winners and losers, unfortunately I found this male in a spider's web the next morning.

The Emperor of Caldecote..........

Lately as a side line I've been feeding some Emperor Moth caterpillars. I've found them to be very greedy Hawthorn feeders. This requires a lot of my time, so I'm glad some have started to spin cocoons!.....

 

 Cocoons

I started with 12 of these critters, unfortunately I lost one. Out of the 11 I have left, 5 have spun cocoons already.................watch this space for more news.............

Showing Character.....02/05

Hebrew Character Mystery Catty??

A horrible night with a stiff Northerly wind and temperatures dipping to just 3°C. There was also a bit of rain thrown in for good measure. However, this isn't enough to put off the hardy Hebrew Characters- 5 in all. This was it for the trap, the only other point of interest was this small stick like caterpillar around 35mm long.........
Looks like the larvae could be a Scalloped Oak- thanks to VC30 Moths

Mystery Catty?

This was taken last September- as yet haven't a clue?...................

The general consensus is Cabbage Moth in its pre pupation stage.......

Angle Shades...................

Fairly convinced this is what these are, it could be a flavour of what's in store later on in Spring!

Pale Tussock

Not yet a moth, but this is a new species for the garden. Found by Louie underneath the trampoline!

The Vapourer

You wouldn't find anything weirder in a Sci-fi film. I have yet to see a Vapourer moth, but have had the caterpillars on several occasions.