AUTUMN MOTHS

Chris Williams from Staffordshire joined me for a mothing session at the country park on Friday 5th as the weather forecast had promised a light southerly breeze in the afternoon and evening. In the end the night temperatures dropped and a heavy dew was already appearing soon after dark.

Between us we set seven traps and after a slow first half to the night, there was a better showing by dawn on Saturday. Forty-five species were recorded in total, my two traps had 35 of the species with 650+ macro moths.

The most attractive moth was this merveille du jour, pictured above, which was discovered a few metres from a trap covered in dew clutching to some grass just before dawn. This species is usually seen here every autumn at least once.

   

It seemed a good night for barred sallows with 50+ seen around my two traps, also one dusky-lemon sallow.

One of the immigrant moths seen was this dark sword-grass, only the second one this year. Also white-point, silver-Y and 20+ angle-shades too.

Several smart looking black rustics were seen.

There were also a handful of autumnal rustics in the two traps.

Feathered ranunculus is a regular visitor to the trap in small numbers in the autumn

The large micro-moth, the boxworm moth seems to be resident in the area now - and the first autumn record here.