Saturday's Moths (28/8)

A nice collection of moths on Saturday morning, including two new species: Gold Spot (Plusia festucae) and Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea). The gold-coloured marks on the Gold Spot do look distinctly metallic.

#819 Gold Spot (Plusia festucae)

#358 Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata)

#606 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)

#700 Light Emerald (Campaea margaritata)

#687 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta)

#818 Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea)

#682 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa)

#761 Small Square-spot (Diarsia rubi)

Hairy Green Caterpillar

This funny-looking green caterpillar dropped out of the willow tree and landed on one of the kids. I believe it is the caterpillar of a Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda), but motionless and scrunched up it looks more like a prickly plant seed of some sort.

#740 Pale Tussock Moth caterpillar (Calliteara pudibunda)

Thick-legged Hoverfly (Syritta pipiens)

I’m happy with this shot of the thick legs of a female Thick-legged Hoverfly (Syritta pipiens, #524) on a Wall Daisy. I was away for most of August, but even so this seems to have been a fairly poor year for hoverflies. There’s certainly not many around the garden at the moment, when usually late summer there’s plenty of drone flies at least.

#524 Thick-legged Hoverfly (Syritta pipiens)

Sunbathing Butterflies

A large Buddleia next-door, plus some nice sunbathing surfaces have brought in quite a few butterflies the last few days. Plenty of Red Admirals, including this rather beaten up one, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Large & Small Whites, the odd Comma and Holly Blue and a single Brimstone. I didn’t add a new butterfly species for a couple of years, but while it would be nice to get something different you can’t help but enjoy watching (and snapping) these superb creatures. Shame the Sun (and most of the butterflies) have disappeared today.

#155 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

#437 Peacock Butterfly (Aglais io)

#221 Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

#60 Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus)

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium, #814)

These days I don’t get to find many new plants in the garden, so a clump of Yarrow growing in the lawn is good news. Another weed; hopefully it survives to flower next year, or even to be used as herbal tea.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

August Moths

After a break, here are some August moths caught this week. A trio of new species included Orange Swift (Triodia sylvina), Rosy Tabby (Endotricha flammealis) and Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata).

#259 Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)

#817 Rosy Tabby (Endotricha flammealis)

#815 Orange Swift (Triodia sylvina)

#660 Straw Underwing (Thalpophila matura)

#673 Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius)

#807 Sallow Kitten (Furcula furcula)

#754 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria)

#816 Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata)

200 Moths

A fine selection of moths captured on Monday morning included a spectacular Poplar Hawk Moth, Sallow Kitten, four new types of “carpet” and many ermine moths including Thistle Ermine. All this brings my count of moth species to over 200.

#663 Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)

#750 Oak Hook-tip (Watsonalla binaria)

#807 Sallow Kitten (Furcula furcula)

#808 August Thorn (Ennomos quercinaria)

#778 Cloaked Minor (Mesoligia furuncula)

#802 Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica)

#804 Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata)

#806 Red Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe spadicearia)

#809 Scorched Carpet (Ligdia adustata)

#805 Chequered Grass-veneer (Catoptria falsella)

#811 Thistle Ermine (Myelois circumvoluta)

#812 Ethmia dodecea (Ethmia dodecea)

Beautiful Demoiselle

I saw this Beautiful Demoiselle, the first dragonfly of the year in the garden, then found it dead. Sadly I don’t get many dragonflies at all, and have only recorded 5 species to date. Wish I had space for a better pond.

#204 Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo)

Brown Rot (Monilinia fructicola) on Plums

Brown Rot fungus has infected all the plums on my plum tree this year. While there was a lot of blossom on the tree, perhaps a lack of pollinators early in the year meant that there were few fruits. And now these are all lost. The fungus spreads in the fruit, starting from blemishes caused by insect pests, such as Codling Moth.

#803 Brown Rot (Monilinia fructicola)

800 Species

Some moth trapping this weekend brought my 800 species for the garden. Some of the highlights are shown below. Of the two new macros, the Dusky Sallow is a species from the Cotswolds liking drier calcareous habitats where its caterpillars live on grasses, whereas the Dun-bar is a woodland species needing deciduous trees. Apparently the caterpillars of the Dun-bar are partly carnivorous, augmenting their plant-based diet with caterpillars of other (and even sometimes their own) species.

#245 Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis)

#783 Miller (Acronicta leporina)

#546 Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)

#796 Dusky Sallow (Eremobia ochroleuca)

#533 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes)

#605 Mottled Rustic (Caradrina morpheus)

#731 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria)

#797 Dun-bar (Cosmia trapezina)

#800 Yellow-spot Twist (Pseudargyrotoza conwagana)

Parasitic Wasp Eggs?

This caterpillar’s short life was interrupted by something. I thought at first a fungus, but after a bit of research I think the white blobs are actually insect eggs, probably from a parasitic wasp whose larvae are growing up inside the dead caterpillar. Yuck…

Mirid Bug: Liocoris tripustulatus (#793)

This tiny mirid bug is a specialist of stinging nettles, and no surprise was found in a clump of nettles that I left to grow.

#793 Liocoris tripustulatus

Dagger Fly: Empis opaca (#794)

This is my first “dagger fly” found in the garden; so-named because of its long beak. These come for nectar, as in this case on the flowers of a bramble, but are also predators. Courtship consists of the males offering prey to females, with the most favoured prey getting the girl. There are a few species, but this one with it’s reddish coloured legs (including the thighs) is I believe one of the commoner ones.

#794 Empis opaca

Marmalade Hoverfly

It’s been pretty poor for hoverflies so far this year, but this week there area lot of Marmalade Hoverflies on flowers around the garden. Hopefully a sign of more species starting to appear. The Golden Rod is soon coming into flower, which is usually a good place to see lots of hoverflies and other insects.

#116 Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

Burnished Brass

There are hardly any butterflies around during the day, but at night I seem to be doing pretty well catching moths. Last night I struck gold with a flashy Burnished Brass, a striking Shaded Broad-bar and a Scarce Footman, among seven new species. It’s not certain if the metallic marks on some moths are to deter or confuse predators, or if it’s just to look good.

#788 Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis)

#789 Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)

#786 Fan-foot (Herminia tarsipennalis)

#657 Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria)

#279 Dot Moth (Melanchra persicariae)

#787 Scarce Footman (Eilema complana)

#790 Bird-cherry Ermine (Yponomeuta evonymella)

#791 White-foot Bell (Epiblema foenella)

#792 Little Grey (Eudonia lacustrata)

Jackdaw in a Breakfast Cereal Box

This Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula) is on its way to the Vale Wildlife Hospital at Beckford. It is an adult bird, but a small one and not in good condition, even I think before the cat brought it in. Luckily it had managed to get away from the cat and didn’t seem too badly hurt, although it was unable to fly. I’m not sure how the cat got it as while there are plenty of jackdaws around, including nesting in the surrounding trees, they rarely come to the ground unless there are scraps there (which there weren’t this morning). The bird seemed in heavy moult, so maybe it was already grounded? Hoping the vets at the hospital can help it recover.

2nd July Micro Moths

These are some of the micro moths I caught recently. A couple of new species of tortrix moths, most of which seem to be found around orchards and fruit trees, of which there are many round here. Also it is the season for grass moths, so several of these appear in the catch.

#779 Marbled Orchard Tortrix (Hedya nubiferana)

#784 Red-barred Tortrix (Ditula angustiorana)

#670 Golden-brown Tubic (Crassa unitella)

#206 Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella)

#200 Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)

#251 Satin Grass Veneer (Crambus perlella)

2nd July Macro Moths

I caught a bumper haul of moths on Friday morning, following a still, warm & overcast night. This included four elephant hawk moths, and a several Heart & Date, Large Yellow Underwing, Uncertain, Flame, Buff Ermine and other commoner moths. Among these here are some of my favourites, including four new species of macro moths for my garden list.

#781 Small Blood-vein (Scopula imitaria)

#783 Miller (Acronicta leporina)

#611 Grey Dagger (Acronicta psi)

#780 Peppered Moth (Biston betularia)

#782 Green Pug (Pasiphila rectangulata)

#632 Clouded Silver (Lomographa temerata)

Lacewing - Dichochrysa ventralis

This green lacewing, Dichochrysa ventralis, #785, dropped into the moth trap. There are a few similar species. but this one has a black line underneath and black spots on the head, including between its antennae. The adults and larvae eat aphids, and they are more than welcome in the garden.

Hawk Moths and More

More moths caught at the weekend, including Small and Large elephant Hawk Moths and Cloaked Minor, another new species.

Small & Elephant Hawk Moth

#219 Small Magpie Moth (Anania hortulata)

#676 Coronet (Craniophora ligustri)

#778 Cloaked Minor (Mesoligia furuncula)