Small Magpie, Buff Ermine, Vine's Rustic

A dry and still night, but too cold for many moths unfortunately. These three are species I didn’t post previously. The two Small Magpies I caught were the first of the season for this macro-sized micro moth. Small Magpie has a long flight season through to September, its food-plants are nettled & woundwort. Buff Ermine is another common moth (four in the trap this morning) flying from May-July; food-plant nettles, but also a variety of other herbaceous plants including birch & honeysuckle. Vine’s Rustic has 2 generations, one now and a larger one in the late summer when it is for a period one of the most numerous macros. It’s caterpillars eat plantains and docks.

#219 Small Magpie Moth (Anania hortulata)

#593 Buff Ermine (Spilosoma lutea)

#604 Vine's Rustic (Hoplodrina ambigua)

Light Emerald, Cinnabar & Green Pug

Three handsome, but quite different moths. Cinnabar Moth is very distinctive species, whose yellow & black striped caterpillars are found (often in numbers) on ragwort plants. Green Pug is a summer species which lays eggs in the blossom of fruit trees such as apple or pear, while Light emerald is a woodland moth found on various trees and hedgerow plants with two generations in Spring & Summer.

#587 Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae)

#700 Light Emerald (Campaea margaritata)

#782 Green Pug (Pasiphila rectangulata)

Plum Tortrix & Shears

Not too many moths this morning, but two new species; neither of them particularly unusual, but both only have a relatively short flight season in May/June. Plus Tortrix is one of those orchard tortrix species that, at rest, look a bit like a bird poo. The Shears is named for the black mark on its wing that looks a bit like old-fashioned shears used for shearing sheep. Two new moth species and I’m closing in on my 1000 species target.

#996 Plum Tortrix (Hedya pruniana)

#997 Shears (Hada plebeja)

Gardener's Friend

This very tame Robin is never far away when I’m tending my veg plot. It’s one of a pair that follow me about looking to see if I’ve grubbed up any good insects.

Foxglove Summer

The weather has cooled right down and there are fewer butterflies and bugs around the garden, but flowers are doing well due to the wet Spring we’ve had. This year we have more Foxgloves than ever, which is really nice and much appreciated by the bumble bees.

Pond Visitors

These are two insects that are found close to water, attracted to my new pond. Footballer hoverfly, so named due to its stripey football-kit colours lays its eggs in shallow pond margins. Large Red Damselfly is rarely found away from standing water, unlike some other damselflies. The latter, a new species for my garden, is one of the earliest dragonflies on the wing in Spring.

#167 Footballer Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

#754 Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)

Silver Y (Autographa gamma)

Silver Y is not a moth I catch very often, only once or twice a year. It has a long flight season from spring through the summer, flying at night, but also during daytime. It is an immigrant from Europe so numbers arriving here can vary. The wing vibrating on the video is done to warm the wing, ready to fly.

Silver Y moth

Thirsty Birds

Setting up a trail-cam near the pond got a few nice pictures of birds coming in for a drink. I was hoping to film a hedgehog as I hadn’t seen ours yet this year, and I did get one shot but not nearby the camera - so that’s good news. This is one of our blackbirds and a house sparrow; both are nesting nearby.

Sunday Moths

Here’s a selection of other moths caught on Sunday morning. Poplar Hawk-moth was the first hawk-moth of the year; the others also firsts for the year as spring moves into summer.

#596 Spectacle (Abrostola tripartita)

#598 Olive Pearl (Udea olivalis)

#645 Double Square-spot (Xestia triangulum)

#663 Poplar Hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)

#757 Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata)

#762 Freyer's Pug (Eupithecia intricata)

Three New Moths

A varied selection of moths this morning, with surprisingly three new species. All three of these moths fly only for one season, during May/June. The Lychnis is named after the latin name of its food plant, Rose Campion (Lychnis coronaria). Campions are also the food-plant of Sandy Carpet, while the larvae of Rustic Shoulder-knot feed on grasses.

#993 Lychnis (Hadena bicruris)

#994 Rustic Shoulder-knot (Apamea sordens)

#995 Sandy Carpet (Perizoma flavofasciata)

#992 Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris)

As with many plants, you wonder how they arrive in the garden. This one was probably introduced accidentally with other plants. Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris) is a non-native plant from the Med, which is now naturalised in UK, mostly found in gardens and waste ground. The seed heads look a bit like capers, but are poisonous.

Two More Species

These are record shots (ie not very good photos) for two new species to add to my garden list. First up a caddisfly Tinodes waeneri (#990) which was caught in the moth trap at the weekend. This caddisfly is fairly uniform brown with dark veins on the wings. It flies throughout the summer from May-Sept, with a peak in May.

Mostly the buttercups in my garden are Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), but this one growing between the paving stones is Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris, #991). I’m sure I must have over-looked this plant previous years, but the shape of the leaves is quite different.

#990 Tinodes waeneri

#991 Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris)

300 Moths

I’m getting quite close to my 1000 species target, but on the way recorded my 300th moth this weekend, adding May Highflyer, Grass Rivulet and Oak Knot-horn.

Grass Rivulet is a species of open grassland, it’s larval food-plant being Yellow Rattle. I do have that in my mini wildflower meadow; which as it’s only about 2 square metres maybe shows that every little really does help! Oak Knot-horn is a micro usually associated with Oak trees; it’s a common enough species, but usually flies in June-July.

#742 Waved Umber (Menophra abruptaria)

#987 Grass Rivulet (Perizoma albulata)

#989 Oak Knot-horn (Phycita roborella)

#606 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)

#607 Common Wainscot (Mythimna pallens)

#688 Pale Mottled Willow (Caradrina clavipalpis)

Cream-spot Ladybird (Calvia quatuordecimguttata, #515)

I found a couple of these ladybirds this weekend. Cream-spotted ladybird is found in parks and woodland around deciduous trees, over-wintering as adults in the leaf-litter and under bark. Like other ladybirds they predate aphids.

Flying Carpet Moths

Lots of carpet moths on Sunday morning, including different forms of Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata) and one new species, May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata, #988). May Highflyer has one generation flying from May-June and is usually around Alders - a tree I do not have nearby, to my knowledge. The white bar across the centre of the wings helps identify this species from other carpet moths.

#988 May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata)

#816 Yellow-barred Brindle (Acasis viretata)

#236 Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata)

#358 Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata)

#358 Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata)

#358 Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata)

Big Beetles

Big beetles were flying the other night, with two each of these coming to the moth trap. Cockchaffers are an annual thing at this time of the year, but it’s always a thrill to catch one. Carrion feeding Black Sexton beetles are the most impressive black beetles that I’ve found so far - maybe one day I’ll get a Stag Beetle!

#526 Common Cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha)

#733 Black Sexton Beetle (Nicrophorus humator)

Chocolate Tip (Clostera curtula, #986)

As a new species for the garden, Chocolate Tip moth (Clostera curtula) was the highlight, but there were also some other beautiful moths in and around the trap this morning. With some warmer weather we were up to 20 types of moth today. In England, Chocolate Tip has two generations, one now and another in Aug/Sept; it is a woodland species preferring Poplar, Aspen & Sallows. It’s not rare, but seems less frequently encountered than the other moths caught today.

#986 Chocolate Tip (Clostera curtula)

#592 White Ermine (Spilosoma lubricipeda)

#740 Pale Tussock (Calliteara pudibunda)

#756 Scorched Wing (Plagodis dolabraria)

#608 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria)

#857 Small Phoenix (Ecliptopera silaceata)

Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

Having just returned from buying a waterlily for my new garden pond, it was great to find my first frog this spring in one of the nearby borders. Build it and they will come!

#985 Nut-tree Tussock (Colocasia coryli)

The small collection of moths in the moth trap this morning, included this Nut-tree Tussock Moth, which is a new species for my list. This moth’s food-plants are trees such as hazel and beech. It flies in 2 generations, in April-June and July-September.

Other moths included four Sliver Cloud moths, which are a local speciality with a small range in UK centred on the Severn & Wye valleys, and a few other typical Spring fliers.

#985 Nut-tree Tussock (Colocasia coryli)

#855 Silver Cloud (Egira conspicillaris)

#659 Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta)

#741 Brindled Beauty (Lycia hirtaria)

#725 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)

#745 Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica)

Cleeve Hill Fungi

It’s not a big season for fungi, but one exception is St George’s Mushroom, which is a Spring fungus, usually found from St George’s Day (23 April) through to June. It is an edible mushroom, tending to be found in short grass, but also other habitats. Yellow Brain is a more specialised species, found on hazel or (as in this case) on dead Gorse branches.

St George's Mushroom (Calocybe gambosa)

Yellow Brain (Tremella mesenterica)