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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end
September 2006
September 10th already and there has been very little written since the beginning of August which proved to be a disappointing month weatherwise. The moth species were up on last year which was good but apart from the Phoenix there were no other new species. However very early this month there were two new species for the garden, one of which was an immigrant. They are pictured below. To the left is the immigrant, a scarce bordered straw, Heliothis armigera, next to this is the fern, Horisme tersata.
September 22nd and the weather has been delightful for the last few days although this morning it is raining. You can see from the following photograph the sort of weather we have been having.
The picture is of a sunflower that Pete has grown. Our elder daughter gave each member of the family some sunflower seeds to see who could grow the tallest. Our son has not got green fingers and all his died. Our younger daughter had the most seeds take and has successfully grown 6 although the plants are not very tall. Our older daughter managed to grow 2 and again the plants are not very tall. Pete managed to grow 2 and his are the tallest but I was amazed by the number of flower heads on this one.
There have also been several new moths over the past few days which I always find exciting. They are the vestal, rhodometra sacraria, this is an immigrant and I am informed that the colour will depend on the heat to which the pupae is exposed, high temperatures producing a lemon yellow ground colour and vivid pink cross-band. Obviously it was not too hot where this one pupated. The other is a Webb's wainscot, Archanara sparganii. This is meant to favour marsh, fen and coast, so perhaps it too had travelled quite a way.
The
Vestal
Webb's wainscot
This morning another new species arrived in the trap and I am excited because I believe it to be another immigrant whose status accordinng to The Moths of Essex is 'vagrant scarce', the habitat is also meant to be coastal. I am at present awaiting confirmation from Brian Goodey, the author of The Moths of Essex as to whether I have identified this moth correctly. Is it as I believe a small mottled willow, spodoptera exigua?
I was correct with the identification of this species and the quality of the specimen was commented on.
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Moths seen in the garden to date A-C, D-F, G-M, N-Si, Sh-the end