Four Pugs

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Here are for of the pug moths I’ve caught over the last week or so. There are quite a bewildering number of often rather similar-looking pug moths to choose from, but these are some of the commoner ones at this time of the year.

New Carpets for the Garden

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Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) and Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata) are both very variable in colour, and have been present in decent numbers while I’ve been trapping this spring (they are present right through to the Autumn as well). Among these I also caught some new species from the large family of colourful carpet moths: Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria), Cypress Carpet (Thera cupressata), the rather striking Flame Carpet (Xanthorhoe designata) and Barred Yellow (Cidaria fulvata). Cypress Carpet is a newly arrived species in UK, first found in 1984 but now spread to Leylandii hedges all over the South of Britain. None of the species mentioned cause damage to carpets, by the way.

Common Swift Moth (Korscheltellus lupulina, #766)

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Both these moths are Common Swifts. I caught the all-dark one the other day and wondered what it was, but there is a melanistic form which is about the same colour as a Common Swift, the bird. The females apparently also tend to be duller than the males, which I suppose is what you see on the right. These moths fly in May-June, their caterpillars living the rest of the year underground nibbling the roots of grasses.

Moth Eggs on the Wall

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These moth eggs appeared on the wall of the house overnight. I’ve no idea what kind of moth laid them, but it does not seem a great place for their caterpillars to hatch, as it’s quite a long crawl to the nearest greenery of any kind.

Update: A couple of weeks later the eggs have hatched and there are a cluster of tiny and very hairy caterpillars.

Elephant Hawk Moth

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Very happy to catch one of these beauties in the moth trap last night. They fly from May-July, with willowherb and bedstraws being their larval plants. The Elephant Hawk Moth is not really that rare in southern England, but except for its caterpillars which look like an elephant’s trunk, it’s not something you will easily see without access to a moth trap.

#767 Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor)

#767 Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor)

Wasp Beetle

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This Wasp Beetle (#764, Clytus arietis) is a new species for the garden. The stripey colours mimic a wasp and are meant to ward off predators, but this one was caught in a spider’s web, so in this case it didn’t work too well.

More May Moths

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The Buff Tip moth is one of my favourites, looking just like a snapped off birch twig, though it also frequents other species of deciduous tree. The Treble Lines moth is also one that I caught in June last year. It flies from May to July, its caterpillars eating plantain.

The two new species are the Marbled Minor, actually one of a trio of closely related species that feed on grasses, and the Rush Veneer, that also feeds on clover and grasses. The latter species is an immigrant from the continent that occurs in UK in large numbers sometimes, but usually later in the summer - this is quite an early record.

Ladybirds

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This appears to be another good year for 7-Spot Ladybirds, with plenty around the garden. The smaller ladybirds take more finding. I do find the yellow 14-Spot Ladybird fairly regularly, but this is only my second Pine Ladybird (the first being during the short warm spell back in March this year)

New Caddisfly - Glyphotaelius pellucidus

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Quite a lot of caddis flies are attracted to light, like this one found lurking in a hole in the wall when I was mothing the other evening. This is quite a big and well marked caddisfly, the males and females looking different (this is a male). Glyphotaelius pellucidus is a woodland pond-dwelling species, it’s larvae making a case of dead leaves. It flies in two generations, one in the spring and another in the late summer.

750 Species

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Four new moths the other night brought my species tally up to 750. I’ve now seen 158 moths, 103 of which were added since I bought my moth trap around a year ago. We’re still waiting for some warmer evenings, but it does look like the weather is finally changing for the better.

Finally a Still, Dry Night

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It wasn’t warm, but at least there was no rain and it wasn’t blowing a gale, so I was able to put out the moth trap for the first time in a few weeks. This year it seems you have to take your chances when they arrive. It was not a great haul of moths, but a couple of new species. Muslin moth (Diaphora mendica) is a May flier, there were four of these grey/brown males in the trap, but none of the white coloured females. The Puss Moth (Cerura vinula) also flies in one generation from May-July - I have found it’s impressive-looking caterpillars around the village, but not in the garden. Other trapped species were the Spectacle (Abrostola tripartita) caught in the moth trap, and a Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae), caught in a nearby spider’s web.

April Moths

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Despite the cold night-time temperatures there were a few moths about last night, not many in numbers but a few species including a few new ones. Pale Tussock was the most striking, also this is a quite early record for a species normally out in May-June. The Knot Grass moth is also more common later in the season, while the others are more typically spring species.

Spring Flowers along the Cotswold Way

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While taking some holiday last week, we did some of the Cotswold Way from Chipping Camden to Dowdeswell Reservoir. As well as beautiful scenery, lots of cute lambs, birds such as bramblings, redstart and a first cuckoo of the year on Cleeve Hill, one of the highlights were the carpets of spring flowers, especially celandines, violets and the first bluebells along the path. Walking was a lovely way to spend several sunny Spring days, and I’m looking forward to doing the next legs of the walk South towards Stroud over the coming weeks.

Great Crested Newt

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I’ve never so far had any kind of newt in the garden, but my youngest son found this female Great Crested Newt under a rotting log on a friend’s farmland. As a protected species, it was quickly returned unharmed to its damp hiding place. It’s good to know that we have these in the area.

Lucky Landings

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These two new beetles for the garden both landed on me while I was sitting outside today - it’s nice when that happens (provided they’re small beetles like these ones). The first, with its stripey body and blunt snout, is a Pea Leaf Weevil (Sitona lineatus). The adults nibble the leaf edges not just of pea plants, but also clovers and other legumes, but does little damage; while its larvae feed on the roots. They over-winter as adults hiding in tree bark and leaf litter. The small black and red ladybird is a Pine Ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus), recognisable by the kidney shaped red dot on it’s wing cover. This species prefers pine trees, but will also live in hawthorns and other plants where it predates aphids and other small insects.

Thistle Tortoise Beetle - Cassida rubiginosa, #734

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I rescued this tiny green beetle from a spiders web on the outside of the house - the spider did not seem to have been very interested in eating it. It’s a Thistle Tortoise Beetle; the commonest UK tortoise beetle. This species lives on thistles and a variety of other plants, over-wintering as an adult in the leaf litter and becoming active in March/April. Native to Eurasia, this species has been introduced to North America and even New Zealand, sometimes deliberately in an attempt to control non-native creeping thistles.

734 Thistle Tortoise Beetle.jpg