Garden Moths 2012

Mothman

Anyone one interested in giving this a go?

Garden Moth Scheme

Suitable for beginners and ALL gardens. Some participants only have a balcony.

This is an annual survey of moths in gardens covering Britain and Ireland.

It requires running a moth trap overnight and recording most of contents the following morning once a week from March to Nov. Up to 9 weeks with no more than 3 in a row can be missed. This means that one can start near end of March having missed the first 3 weeks. So there is still time to get organised.

Requirements, moth trap, guide book....enthusiasm and a willingness to learn

The last 2 are easy and cost nothing

The guide book is relatively straight froward, but will cost in the order of €30-€40
Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland 2nd edition
Waring , Townsend & Lewington. (link to publisher) about half way down.

There is a concise version which has the same plates, but in my opinion, the full version is worth it for the extra meaningful info, but if the budget cannot stretch the concise version will do.

Moth traps not near as straight forward and unless you go a DIY option, can cost a pretty penny cent and even then, its hard to do it under €50. The issue is electrics and out door environment.

A moth trap is basically a light source and a retaining box/bucket etc. The box is often the DIY part and the light source is often sourced from specialist moth trap supplier. One of my traps uses fish tank electrics with the control unit in a plastic lunch box type container.

See guide to Moth Trapping includes plans for building your own trap
and Guide to Bulbs

and see here for list of moth trap suppliers

I'm hopeful that Littlebug and Half-cocked may be interested in joining the 15 or so currently participating in Ireland, but maybe there are others?

One last thing is, that taking photos of the moths and uploading them to internet will be really helpful with regard identifying them.

Any queries, just ask away....

Half-cocked

No rest for the wicked - spring/summer GMS starts this Friday. Thought I'd start a new thread. I'm desperately trying to finish building a new trap in time. Having only caught 3 moths for the entire Winter GMS, I caught 4 the night after it ended! 2 Common Quakers, 1 Hebrew Character and 1 Double Striped Pug.

Gardener3

Put the 40W Actinic out in the garden last night and was pleased to get:

Chestnut x2
Clouded Drab
Common Quaker x2
Diurnea fagella x2
Double-striped Pug
Early Grey (NFY)
Early Thorn x5
Engrailed
Hebrew Character x2
March Moth
Pale Brindled Beauty
Yellow Horned (NFY)
Tortricodes alternella - very worn but a micro I've not recorded here before

Mothman

Thanks to Half-cocked for starting this thread.
I've messed up the opening post by copying the OP from last years thread.
Sorry

But it contains good info

Half-cocked

Gardener3 wrote: »

Put the 40W Actinic out in the garden last night and was pleased to get:

Chestnut x2
Clouded Drab
Common Quaker x2
Diurnea fagella x2
Double-striped Pug
Early Grey (NFY)
Early Thorn x5
Engrailed
Hebrew Character x2
March Moth
Pale Brindled Beauty
Yellow Horned (NFY)
Tortricodes alternella - very worn but a micro I've not recorded here before

Nice catch, I only got 2 common quakers on Tuesday night. I'm switching from 15w to 40w actinic, hopefully will boost the numbers.

littlebug

the trap is out Quite windy so I won't get over excited.

Last year I had 15 moths on the first night.
I wonder will Mothman beat his record breaking 270 moths from night 1 last year

Mothman

No chance, just not a good moth day today.
Will be doing well to even get a 10th of that

littlebug

Too much weather. No moths but I'm relieved that the trap was intact this morning :rolleyes:

Mothman

littlebug wrote: »

Too much weather. No moths but I'm relieved that the trap was intact this morning :rolleyes:

I know how you feel with regard the trap. The wind and torrential rain woke me up during the night.
It was reasonably mild for the first part with temp up to 9C. It dropped to 4c at dawn with frost and ice.

0461 Ypsolopha ustella 1
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 3
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 1
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 1
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 15
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 24
2189 Twin-spotted Quaker (Orthosia munda) 4
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 7
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 6

Half the species and about a quarter of the moths compared to last year!

littlebug

Mothman wrote: »

The wind and torrential rain woke me up during the night.

same here . and when I was up tending to a sick child I was worrying about the moth trap

Not a bad catch there considering...

Half-cocked

1 Hebrew Character last night.

thebishop

I had the same start as last year.No Moths.

Half-cocked

Did the GMS last night as I am away all weekend.

1 Hebrew Character
5 Common Quakers
1 Early Thorn
2 Double-striped Pugs

littlebug

I just put the trap together and hoovered loads of dead flies out of the bulb connection bit :eek: LOADS of them.
Looking reasonable weather wise this week. Fingers crossed

littlebug

1 lonesome little clouded drab in the trap (and a slug).
Gave me a chance to use my new lens

Mothman

I'm going to have to use different site. Robin cleaned the place up before I got to trap at 6.15 this morning.
The sheet had absolutely no moths on it. usually 20+ moths if not many more on the sheet. Overnight min of 11C
The different site won't be near as good...or convenient, but would be outside this Robin's territory.

0468 Rhigognostis incarnatella 4
0663 Diurnea fagella 8
0670 Depressaria daucella 1
0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 1
1053 Acleris hastiana 1
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 9
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 1
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 5
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 11
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 3
1934 Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria) 16
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 14
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 45
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 18
2189 Twin-spotted Quaker (Orthosia munda) 11
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 17
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 2
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 7

thebishop

Mild and misty here last night. 3 moths.
Common Quaker x 1
Chestnut x1
Early Grey x 1.
Early Grey was one I didnt have last year.

Mothman

I've selected new site for GMS and ran trap last night for this week and the results are remarkably similar!!

0468 Rhigognostis incarnatella 1
0663 Diurnea fagella 17
0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 1
1044x Acleris ferrugana/notana 1
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 9
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
1769 Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica) 1
1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 1
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 4
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 6
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 11
1934 Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria) 13
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 20
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 37
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 31
2189 Twin-spotted Quaker (Orthosia munda) 25
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 25
2236 Pale Pinion (Lithophane hepatica) 1
2237 Grey Shoulder-knot (Lithophane ornitopus) 1
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 2
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 5

Half-cocked

I put out 2 traps last night and my old 15w caught more than my fancy new 40w GMS trap - I hope I haven't picked a bad site for the GMS. At least all species were present in both (I can't run both on GMS nights).

Total catch:

Common Quaker x13
Early Thorn x2
Early Grey x3
Plume x2
Double-striped Pug x2
Hebrew Character x 12
Epiphyas postvittana x2

littlebug

I put the 40w actinic out last night and caught 4 moths.
1x Clouded Drab
3 x Hebrew Character



Closer look at the detail... looks like a carpet

Mothman

Damp 8C early in night falling to 5C by dawn.
4 hibernating/overwintering species.

1852 Brindled Pug (Eupithecia abbreviata) 5
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 9
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 2
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 2
1934 Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria) 1
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 7
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 32
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 53
2189 Twin-spotted Quaker (Orthosia munda) 17
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 26
2236 Pale Pinion (Lithophane hepatica) 1
2237 Grey Shoulder-knot (Lithophane ornitopus) 4
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 14
2256 Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) 2
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 2

Compare to last week 17 Diurnea fagella and 8 March Moths last week, none this week and only a single Dotted Border compared to 13 last week.

littlebug

A cool, dry (lovely) starlit night here which brought no moths.
So far the MV light hasn't made any difference though I think it was another week before we really got established last year. I might put the actinic out tonight.

Half-cocked

Temp dropped to 4.4 last night but still got a few:

Hebrew Character x4
Common Quaker x3
Early Grey x3

The Early Greys all had a lovely pinkish tinge that doesn't really show up on the photos.

Half-cocked

littlebug wrote: »

Gave me a chance to use my new lens

What did you get?

Mothman

Half-cocked wrote: »

Temp dropped to 4.4 last night but still got a few:

Hebrew Character x4
Common Quaker x3
Early Grey x3

The Early Greys all had a lovely pinkish tinge that doesn't really show up on the photos.

known as ab. rosea. In my experience most of the Early Grey are tinged pink, some quite strongly. I believe this form is unusual in many parts of Britain.

littlebug

Half-cocked wrote: »

What did you get?

Sigma 50mm F2.8 D Macro lens got it before Christmas but only getting to use it now. I'm looking forward to trying to get some half decent pics of micros as I just couldn't focus on the smaller things with the regular lens. Also... eyesight for the small stuff isn't great (or for the big stuff for that matter:rolleyes:).

thebishop

Friday nights catch.
Common Quaker x 1
Small Quaker x 1
Hebrew Character x 1
March Moth x 1

littlebug

Kids spotted this lovely Angle Shades this morning by the front door. A bit early I think and new for my garden though I have had the caterpillars a couple of times (also on the front doorstep )

littlebug

Just two Hebrew Characters this morning... and a wasp :eek:

Numbers way lower than this time last year despite the mild weather the last few days.

Half-cocked

4 Early Greys
3 Hebrew Characters
1 Epiphyas postvittana

Min 7 degrees C last night. Disappointing. Still, its early in the season.

thebishop

One Small Quaker on Friday night.Windy night.7c.

Half-cocked

Trap seems to be full of Epiphyas Postvittana tonight, but did spot a nice Early Thorn nearby:



and also this rather menacing looking lady:

littlebug

White Shouldered House Moth in the house gave me the chance to see how the new lens coped with the micros. The angle was awkard (had to stand on tippy toes ) and there was a shadow but not too bad. Have to work on getting the focus right but I'm looking forward to seeing more detail on the small things over the next few months
Have the actinic out tonight.
[IMG][/img]

littlebug

What is it about Angle Shades and my front door I spotted one right on the door frame as I was leaving this afternoon but then forgot about it and my daughter must have brushed into it as we were coming in again as we then spotted on her coat inside. So this one actually made it in
That's 2 of the moths and 2 of the caterpillars that have been at the front door (and never anything else) or maybe the same one all along

In the trap (at the back of the house) last night 4 Hebrew Characters and 2 clouded Drab.

Half-cocked

littlebug wrote: »

What is it about Angle Shades and my front door I spotted one right on the door frame as I was leaving this afternoon but then forgot about it and my daughter must have brushed into it as we were coming in again as we then spotted on her coat inside. So this one actually made it in
That's 2 of the moths and 2 of the caterpillars that have been at the front door (and never anything else) or maybe the same one all along

In the trap (at the back of the house) last night 4 Hebrew Characters and 2 clouded Drab.

Maybe they like the colour of your door?:D

thebishop

Id this micro please.Thinking it might be.Dipleurina lacustrata? But it seems to be the wrong time of year.

Mothman

thebishop wrote: »

Id this micro please.Thinking it might be.Dipleurina lacustrata? But it seems to be the wrong time of year.

A related species. the narrow wing shape distinguishes this. It is Eudonia angustea.

Be careful of stated flight seasons for 2 reasons. Due to the recent weather, we are seeing species that are usually out in May!
Also not all guides are correct.
For example, Ukmoths for E. angustea states

late flight period, from July well into the late autumn

Actaully E. angustea seems to be double brooded withthe first brood usually May/June. This has been brought forward this year with the weather, but even in past years it has been seen in March

thebishop

Thanks again Mothman (well chosen username)
4c here last night 9 moths.
Eudonia angustea x 1
March moth x 1
Ingrailed x 1
Brndled Pug x 1
Hebrew Character x 2
Chestnut x 2
Light brown apple moth x 1.

Half-cocked

I had 3 species - Early Grey, Common Quaker and Hebrew Character. 4.1C.

Half-cocked

Is this a White-shouldered House Moth? Looks like the one in Littlebugs pic above.

thebishop

A friend say a Hummingbird hawk moth yesterday. Wondering would it have survived here for the winter?Or would it have migrated this early?

littlebug

nice drizzly night for moth trapping

I had nothing last week.. not one moth. I had way more this time last year on even on colder nights . I have various theories on why this might be but I'll see what happens tonight.

thebishop

Friday nights big catch.
Light Brown apple Moth x 1
Hebrew Character x 1
Small Quaker x 1

Half-cocked

I've never recorded a Small Quaker in my garden but everyone else seems to be catching them. I'm wondering if I need to look a bit more closely at all the Common Quakers I'm recording...

littlebug

low numbers again for me on friday
1x hebrew character
1x clouded drab
1x powdered quaker

littlebug

Just one Hebrew Character on Friday night. Really need the nights to warm up a bit. Funny I've had more moths on the few nights Ive had the actinic light out than with the MV. Don't know if it's just coincidence and the nights were just more favourable. Might put the actinic out tonight again.

thebishop

Friday nights catch.Temp +2C.
Hebrew Character X 3
Clouded Drab X 1
Chestnut X 1.

littlebug

How'd everyone do last night? I have the trap out tonight instead... overcast and drizzly at the minute.

thebishop

Very heavy rain here early in the night,Showers later. Temp 5c.
The only Moths that seemed to like that kind of weather were Hebrew Characters.Had 4 of them and nothing else.

Mothman

The weather this month has been very poor for recording moths. I'm getting low numbers as well.

And about Small Quaker, outside of mature woods they are not especially common. I think you'll know when you see it.

My catch this morning

1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 1
2186 Powdered Quaker (Orthosia gracilis) 8
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 1
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 6
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 15
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 1

Quite frosty here now.

Edit, oops removed the Garden Tiger larva from list. Nothing to do with trap

Half-cocked

GMS night:

3 Early Greys
3 Common Quakers
3 Hebrew Characters