Some moths I record in my garden

jmkennedyie

Fabulous thread. A real eye-opener.

Mothman wrote: »

There is a guide for field use published recently.
Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britian and Ireland.
Townsend, Waring & Lewington.
Guide to all Macro (generally larger) species, covering about 570 out of the 1380 species recorded here in Ireland.

I bought that book from amazon but for anyone else considering it I see it is now available from Birdwatch Ireland: http://shop.birdwatchireland.ie. Folks should note that it is optimised for the field...so it doesn't have maps or other background info...for that kind of stuff I think there is a fuller version of the book.

Mothman

Here are some from 27th June. Haven't run traps since, though they are on tonight

A fresh Green Pug and another with practically all green faded. Green colour generally fades quickly.



Marbled White Spot, fairly small being about 12mm long


Female Common White Wave, the males have feathered antennae


Flame Shoulder


Peach Blossom


Brimstone Moth, when fresh they are much more yellow.


Mottles Beauty, quite large being about 5cm across. Very common particularly in woodlands.


Light Emerald, a very fresh specimen. I don't often seem them with the red spots at apex of wing. These usually wear off quite quickly. Another species that is about 5cm across.


All Ingrailed Clay. I have already shown this species earlier, but I thought the 4 together demonstrated how variable this species is


2 views of Buff Arches.

Mothman

jmkennedyie wrote: »

Fabulous thread. A real eye-opener.

I bought that book from amazon but for anyone else considering it I see it is now available from Birdwatch Ireland: http://shop.birdwatchireland.ie. Folks should note that it is optimised for the field...so it doesn't have maps or other background info...for that kind of stuff I think there is a fuller version of the book.

Indeed the bigger version is Called "Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britian and Ireland"
Same plates, but much more text which usually gives detail on status in Ireland and more habitat details and more. No maps. Costs £30, so should be less then €40. Your local bookshop would also get it in.
Despite the name, the concise guide is much better for carrying in field.

gerky

Just to add to this http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ have this guide and they have free delivery on all books so it would work out a good bit cheaper than amazon.

IrishHomer

Very impresed with the photos submitted especially Mothman, just wondering can you recommend what lens for Canon, i tried some over the weekend but i can't get the quality of yours?

Mothman

IrishHomer wrote: »

Very impresed with the photos submitted especially Mothman, just wondering can you recommend what lens for Canon, i tried some over the weekend but i can't get the quality of yours?

Is this a DSLR?
I've no idea myself as it's a 6 year old compact camera I use for most of my photos. Nikon coolpix 4500. I do use a ring light accessory for many of the photos to light up the moths.

I'm sorting out another series of photos, don't think I'll get it done tonight though.

Roen

IrishHomer wrote: »

Very impresed with the photos submitted especially Mothman, just wondering can you recommend what lens for Canon, i tried some over the weekend but i can't get the quality of yours?

What body do you have? If it's a dSLR like Mothman was saying Canon do a 100mm ƒ2.8 macro, a 50mm compact macro and a 180mm macro or you could also go the third party route. I hear great things about the Sigma 150mm macro for instance.

Ring flashes are almost a necessity though so bear in mind you may have to budget for that too.

Canon also do a lens caled the MP-E 65mm macro which is on the exotic side of what you're looking for.

IrishHomer

I use a Canon 40D DSLR.

Mothman

Ok, another 9 moths, 10 photos.
The last 2 photos of same moth. but look quite different due to different white balance setting on camera.

Dot Moth, about 20mm long,


Lilac Beauty, hard to get photo of moth in focus because the wings are curled up at front and so is more 3 dimensional than most.


Grey Arches, about 25mm long


Double Dart, darker in real life, lightened in photo to reveal a little more detail


Double Square-spot


Scallop Shell, not one I see often, and a little worn, but I had to put it up.


Swallow-tailed Moth, fairly large, about 6cm across. Often seen at dusk, but only as a flash of yellow flying quickly by.



Broad-barred White, smallish being about 15mm long


Next 2 are the same moth! Clay Triple-lines. Since there is some discussion about cameras, I thought I would show how the white balance setting can dramatically change the colour. The 2nd photo is the correct colour, but the first photo would look right for a 2nd brood specimen which are quite different from the first brood.

Roen

Cool shots Mothman. The triple clay is definitely my fave of the lot.

IrishHomer wrote: »

I use a Canon 40D DSLR.

Another cheap route into macro photography would be to just use an existing lens and reverse mount it on the camera via an adaptor. Even if you don't have one a 50mm ƒ1.8 with reverse adaptor won't come to more than about €120 from eBay.

Also at the budget end of the scale would be close up filters and and extension rings, any of the above will allow you into the world of macro photography and won't break the bank!

Mothman

Last few months have conspired against me for moth recording and in particular up dating this thread, but I did get some photos from couple nights ago. Not many species about now, but there are moths on the wing throughout winter.

Merveille du Jour, didn't have time to properly hide it in thick lichen on an oak tree trunk, but you get the idea of how it camouflages.


Close up.


Mottled Umber, usually rests with hind wings hidden, but it had just flown out of trap and settled on a nearby branch.


Feathered Thorn, no problem seeing how this one hides.


It was this species that got me into recording moths. I didn't expect to see something fluttering at the window on a freezing November night

AlanSparrowhawk

nice one, great photos, mucho appreciatied.

Alun

Excellent! Does the Feathered Thorn stay exactly that colour all the time, or does it's colour change as the leaves change?

Mothman

Moths are covered in scales, such as on a fish, and it's the scales that give the colour. The colour does not change, though they do fade with time, green in particular fades quickly. The scales are easily rubbed (and washed off) off both moths and butterflies and I've seen some that are opaque, having practically lost all scales. This can happen after a dip in a puddle.

Back to Feathered Thorn, and as with most species there is variability within the species, and some are lighter, particularly females.

MooseJam

could I ask where you live, would you get many of those in Dublin ?

Mothman

Rural Ashford.

Yes most of the species in this thread would be about in suburban Dublin.
Once there are a few shrubs about, its amazing what diversity there is, also moths are quite mobile and turn up out side of habitat. Native trees nearby greatly enhance the moth fauna.
Typically there is not much of a winter season, and moth recorders in more urban areas often record nothing from Nov to March.

Mothman

Mothman wrote: »

Back to Feathered Thorn, and as with most species there is variability within the species, and some are lighter, particularly females.

The Feathered Thorns I got today illustrate the above point well.
The pale one is the female


This one is a Common Quaker, but out of season, abundant in Spring

kincsem

This is a fantastic thread, probably the most interesting on boards. I am amazed that there are so many moth species about. The photos are top class and so beautiful. I like it when people have interesting hobbies, and share them with us.

P.S. How did you pick your name, Mothman?

Funkyzeit

kincsem wrote: »

This is a fantastic thread, probably the most interesting on boards. I am amazed that there are so many moth species about. The photos are top class and so beautiful. I like it when people have interesting hobbies, and share them with us.

P.S. How did you pick your name, Mothman?

Agree - fabulous fabulous pictures - Keep em Coming !!!

Mothman

Some from last night. There won't be much apart from December Moths and Winter Moths between now and late January, so don't expect more new photos. I still intend to upload pictures of a couple moth traps........another day!

Brick, from a distance fairly plain, but does have fine markings


Another Feathered Thorn, one of about 30 I recorded last night


Satellite, this species hibernates.


Common Marbled Carpet, note I've already featured this species in post #30 but it looks quite different!


December Moth, first of season


Winter Moth, also first of season and most often seen at house windows as tungsten lights attract it quite well. This moth is about 15mm long whereas all of the above range 20-25mm long.

kincsem

BBC1 at the moment - Blue Tit chicks eat 35,000,000,000 moth caterpillars in Britain each year. :eek:

The program was showing moths caught in moth traps. I switched on in mid-program and only saw about a minute of the moths part.

BBC1 20:30 Wednesday ... Wild About Your Garden ... unfortunately outside the UK we can not watch the video of the program on the BBC website.

GhostInTheRuins

This is a great thread that deserves a bump I think.

I thought I'd found an interesting type of moth a couple of weeks ago untill I found this thread, I never realised there were so many varieties out there, fascinating stuff!


Here's the one I found, I think it looks similar to the one Alun Posted last year, Oak Eggar, but I could be wrong:


This is the best I could get of his wings unfortuantely:

Mothman

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Here's the one I found, I think it looks similar to the one Alun Posted last year, Oak Eggar, but I could be wrong:

Yes it is Oak Eggar, though the form in Ireland is generally known as Northern Eggar.
I love the front on view.
Would you PM me details of sighting and I'll enter it in the MothsIreland database?
Date Location with grid ref.
www.gridreference.ie

GhostInTheRuins

Mothman wrote: »

Yes it is Oak Eggar, though the form in Ireland is generally known as Northern Eggar.
I love the front on view.
Would you PM me details of sighting and I'll enter it in the MothsIreland database?
Date Location with grid ref.
www.gridreference.ie

Cheers.

PM is on the way

Durnish

Mothman, do you identify caterpillars as well?
The dunes around Rosbeg were full of really long hairy caterpillars last week. Have some pics coming shortly.

Mothman

Durnish wrote: »

Mothman, do you identify caterpillars as well?
The dunes around Rosbeg were full of really long hairy caterpillars last week. Have some pics coming shortly.

My experience is limited but I can work out most, though struggle to separate White Ermine and Buff Ermine, but neither of these are "really long"

Durnish

here's the dune cat,



and here's the mountainside cat. Quite beautiful.

Mothman

The dune larva is Fox Moth and another link

The moutain larva is Emperor Moth

Would you PM me details of sighting and I'll enter it in the MothsIreland database?
Date, numbers seen, location with grid ref (www.gridreference.ie) and name, though if you rather prefer I enter "unknown recorder"

littlebug

I saw one similar to the Fox Moth larva except he looked completely black. He could have been 4 inches long. I may just not have noticed the brown parts... it was 3am and he was making his way across my kitchen floor

The place was also coming down with the little yellow and black lads in the picture below. I've tried to figure out what they are to no avail but maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. My daughter took a real shine to them so it would be nice to be able to tell her what they are/ turn into.

Mothman

littlebug wrote: »

The place was also coming down with the little yellow and black lads in the picture below.

Cinnabar Moth caterpillar and another link They eat Ragwort

As for the middle of night kitchen Larva Oak Eggar is a possibility as well. What time of year. I can't imagine you were looking at the finer detail but was it hairy or not?