December in November

My first December moth was trapped a couple of nights ago and was one of my earliest dates for this species.

Still flying

Put the trap out last night and managed a light brown apple moth, silver Y and this new for the year feathered thorn.

Only one moth in the trap last night but it turned out to be my first figure of eight of the autumn.

Autumn's here

More autumn species keep turning up with a couple of green brindled crescents in the catch last night plus a red green carpet, blair's shoulder knot, silver Y, lunar underwing along with some late flying common marbled carpets, brimstone, large yellow underwing and a willow beauty.

Another new micro

The run of new micro records continued last night with my first agonopterix umbellana caught in Penrhyn Bay. Also trapped were blair's shoulder knot 3, lunar underwing, feathered ranunculus 2, large yellow underwing, black rustic, silver Y 4.

agonopterix umbellana

Micro magic

Had a session last night with my spare trap at my son's in Dyserth and managed to catch a new moth for me, ypsolopha sequella, quite a smart micro and apparently only the eighth record for Denbighshire.

ypsolopha sequella Also trapped a beaded chestnut at Dyserth, a paler one than 2 more richer coloured ones I had at home the previous night.

Autumnal Moths in Cemaes

 Pearly Underwing

 Pearly Underwing and Feathered Ranunculus

 Feathered Ranunculus

 Burnished Brass

 Dusky Thorn

 Frosted Orange

 Lunar Underwing

 Common Marbled Carpet

 Marbled Carpet sp. 1

Marbled Carpet sp. 2

Above is a selection of moths I caught last night. Is Pearly Underwing a common immigrant in North Wales? Also any tips on separating Marbled Carpets would be good :-)

Orange appeal

Nice frosted orange trapped at R&R's in Colwyn Bay overnight while back home had my first lunar underwing of the autumn and 5 feathered ranunculus.

Frosted orange

More micros

Several new micros caught over the last couple of days, the first 2 at R&R's in Colwyn Bay and the last in Penrhyn Bay. The Bay ones were carcina quercana and acleris sparsana while back home I had either acleris laterana or the strawberry tort acleris comariana which can only be reliably sperarated by gen dis, although on size I would go for the former. Another trapping session produced one more new record for Conwy RSPB with setaceous hebrew character.

Acleris sparsana

carcina quercana

acleris laterana/comariana

Few more new records

New records keep coming for the site at R&R's in Colwyn Bay with several more added in the last couple of days including feathered gothic (a male) which is a moth I'd not seen before and is the first record for the north west corner of Denbighshire with most seen on the eastern side of VC50. Also centre-barred sallow and a chevron were other new records.

feathered gothic

centre barred sallow

chevron

Recent Moths, Mynydd Bodafon, Anglesey

There are still plenty of moths around up on the mountain. Amongst all the underwings and rustics, I have caught my first Feathered Gothic and Buff Footman recently. Last night amongst about 250 moths were two local scarcities, both of which I have one previous record, Crescent and Haworth's Minor. Both have a preference for wet boggy areas, which are abundant around here! Also three Canary-shouldered Thorn last night.

Crescent



Haworth's Minor

Couple more

Small square spot was new for the year last night while also had second generation pebble prominent.

small square spot

pebble prominent

New records

Several new records added to Conwy RSPB reserve's list after a couple of trapping sessions there this week with R&R and includes this morning's bulrush wainscot while back home had a broad bordered yellow underwing, the first for a couple of years.

bulrush wainscot

broad bordered yellow underwing

Slowing up

Dusky thorn was the only new record at R&R's in Colwyn Bay overnight as things slow up before the autumn species start arriving in force.

Pug spotted

A white-spotted pug was among new records at R&R's in Colwyn Bay overnight along with, agonopterix arenella, dingy footman and agriphilia geniculea. Back home had a lateish iron prominent and a flounced rustic.

White-spotted pug

agonopterix arenella

iron prominent

flounced rustic

Chi moments

Several more new records for R&R's in Colwyn Bay overnight with grey chi, shuttle-shaped dart, canary-shouldered thorn and flounced rustic. Back home in Penrhyn Bay square-spot rustic and flounced rustic were new in.

Grey chi

Canary-shouldered thorn

square-spot rustic

Beetlemania

Another interesting beetle seen around the moth trap at R&R's in Colwyn Bay was this burying beetle (or Sexton beetle). It is believed they can smell a rotting corpse from upto a mile away!

National Moth Night Part 2

National Moth Night records from spare trap run by R&R in Colwyn Bay resulted as follows: Large yellow underwing 20 lesser bb yellow underwing 6 Black arches 2 Brimstone 1 double square spot 1 early thorn 1 dark arches 1 willow beauty 1 common footman 1 buff footman 1 yellow tail 1

National Moth Night

A total of 90 moths for me in my National Moth Night catch, nearly half (47) were large yellow underwing. Rest were: Lesser bb yellow underwing 7 Silver Y 3 Shuttle-shaped dart 5 Common rusric agg 6 Copper underwing agg 1 Flame shoulder 1 Rosy rustic 1 Dark arches 14 Willow beauty 1 Lesser yellow underwing 2 Dunbar 1

Another new micro

Added another micro to the garden list last night with Pyrausta aurata, only fifth VC49 record.

Also trapped a swallow prominent

New micro

Added another new micro to the garden list with this cochylis atricapitana.

Latest moths- slowed up a bit

 6-striped Rustic
Batrachedra praeangusta

 Dun-Bar duo

 Grey Arches

Fourth record

This micro was trapped at R&R's in Colwyn Bay and has been identified as Anarsia spartiella, only the fourth record for Denbighshire.

New moths

A good couple of days at both R&R's in Colwyn Bay and back home in Penrhyn Bay where I recorded by first migrant rush veneer plus a few NFY. At R&R's eighth record for Denbighshire with a smart micro ypsolopha sequella. Penrhyn Bay ones were:

rush veneer

rosy rustic

orange swift

yellow barred brindle

dingy footman

white line dart At Colwyn Bay some of the best ones were:

Ypsolopha sequella

Dotted clay

Gold spots