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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end
June 2005
Already it is the 10th June. The weather has been very mixed
and presumably because it has been quite cold at night there have been very few
moths about with the exception of the common swift, although I do not think
these have been as plentiful as last year. However some warmer weather with
cloud brought 3 new moths to the trap last night.
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Celypha lacunana |
Nutmeg, discestra trifolii |
Purple bar, Cosmorhoe ocellata |
There have been one or two other
visitors of note to the garden recently. In the bright sunshine we had on
Wednesday there was the Libellula depressa - Broad-bodied Chaser, to the left
and then we are delighted to say that we once again have a frog in the pond.
There are also 2 newts but as yet they have not been available for a photo
call!
13th June and the day has dawned
bright and sunny although still quite cool. There was a new moth in the trap
today, the brown rustic, rusina ferruginea, which brings the total
number of moth species seen in the garden to 280.
18th June and the weather has turned hot! When we travelled from Ipswich
last night at about 11 pm the temperature was about 17 degrees C. This morning
has dawned bright and sunny with the promise of a really hot day. Last night
did not result in a large catch of moths but there was one there that I have
been hoping for, the lime hawkmoth, mimas tiliae. There were also a
couple of new tortrix, the red-barred tortrix, ditula angustiorana, and
the dichrorampha flavidorsana.
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red-barred tortrix, |
lime hawkmoth, mimas tiliae |
Dichrorampha flavidorsana |
June 20th and the weather remains very hot and sunny, excellent for moths, although we have seen no butterflies in the last week, which is surprising. There have been a further three new moths over the last couple of nights.
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Pseudargyrotoza |
figure of eighty, |
Aleimma |
Both the pseuargyrotoza conwagana and aleimma loeflingiana are tortrix moths and there seems to be an abundance of these this year. Parts of Epping Forest have had trees suffering from defoliation as a reasult of the action of the caterpillars of this type of moth. We went to Hatfield Forest yesterday and saw several green oak tortix moths and on looking up noticed the defoliation of oak trees above us.
June 22nd and the weather
continues hot and sunny. As a result there have been a good number of moths in
and around the trap in the morning with 2 privet hawkmoths and 1 elephant
hawkmoth yesterday. Today there were none of the hawkmoths but there were
another 6 species that I had not recorded before, these were the blotched
emerald, comibaena bajularia, to the left and the barred straw, eulithis
pyraliata, to the right. The other 4 took a little longer for me to
identify and they are as shown below.
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crambus perlella |
grey arches, polia nebulosa |
scoparia pyralella |
variegated golden tortrix, |
Then finally at about 7 pm this evening there was a hummingbird hawkmoth around, although I did not manage a photo.
June 24th and an opportunity to
update the diary with another 5 moths all new to the garden. The first is one
that I had read about but could hradly imagine and that is the burnished brass
which had a really metallic sheen to it which unfortunately the photographs do
not show. There are still a great many tortix moths about the phtheochra
rugosana and Celypha striana are both from this family.
So from left tp right we have 2 images of the burnished brass, diachrysia
chrysitis, the miller, Acronicta leporina, then the two tortrix
moths, phtheochra rugosana and Celypha striana and finally a lilltle pyralid
Homoeosoma sinuella.
I am hoping to have seen
300 species of moths in our garden by the end of the year and I am one nearer
to that target with this new moth the eucosma hohenwartiana. Otherwise although
there hae been plenty of moths they are all ones that I have seen before. The
weather at the moment is suitable for them with it being hot and sultry but I
was reluctant to put the trap out last night as the forecast was for blustery
winds and I did not want to have it damaged.
The final two entries for this
month could not have been more extreme in size, the pine hawkmoth, hyloicus
pinastri, on the left is one of our larger moths and the hawthorn moth, Scythropia
crataegella, on the right, must be one of our smallest. As it was
rainning heavily last night, 29th June, moths do not seem to mind bad weather
as much as butterflies and as I drove back in the dark I could see several
flying in what was heavy rain.
click on any photo to enlarge.
May / July / Home/ The garden / email
Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end