A close frond of mine: Part II

In a sequel to an earlier post: http://eastkentgardenmoths.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/close-frond-of-mine.html
the Psychoides verhuella mines on Hartstongue duly emerged over the weekend - not the most striking of moths but success nonetheless.




And the trapping in the garden has been looking up over the past few days, more on that later.

Dave

Adventives are real moths too...discuss

In an update to my preceding post, I have now successfully reared one of the Prays oleae larvae found in mines at Wentworth Garden Centre, South Yorkshire through to adulthood.



P. oleae - pupa and cocoon



P. oleae - reared ex mine on Olive, VC63, emerged 27.iv.2012

Struck gold at the mine....

A brand new species for me this week, albeit very far from Kent.

Found lots of mines of the adventive, olive-feeding species Prays oleae at a garden centre in South Yorkshire.  Which is very fitting as this species was first reported in the UK from a garden centre in Surrey in 2009: garden centres are of course where it is easiest to find olive trees in the UK!





Very pleased to add this to the list.

Dave

Same old, same old, almost...

The garden trap is definitely seeing a lull at the moment with just relatively low numbers of the usual suspects - Early Grey and Small Quaker most numerous, another couple of Eudonia angustea, whilst Clouded Drabs seem to have dried up.

Had a trip yesterday afternoon, to Fowlmead Country Park, which achieved the main purpose of bagging Orange Underwing for the year list, as two were seen at the first mature birch clump within minutes of arrival (they were the only two in an hour long foray).

Had good success with early stage micros too, including Limnaecia phragmitella larvae and plenty of Ectoedemia heringella mines - details and pics on my Kent Micro Moths blog:

http://kentmicromoths.blogspot.co.uk/

Dave

A close frond of mine

In a follow up to the previous post and Hartstongue mines from Wales, the larva have been examined more closely and confirmed as Psychoides verhuella.

A tale of 3 Vices...

...3 Vice Counties that is: East Gloucestershire, Breconshire and East Kent.

A weekend trip to a wedding in the Brecon Beacons offered plenty of opportunity for moth recording much further afield with a stop-over in Gloucestershire on the way.

Ran the 125W MV in a rural garden in Grafton, Gloucestershire, close to a blossoming Sallow and had probably the best March night I've ever had:

112 Small Quaker
47 Clouded Drab
39 Hebrew Character
19 Common Quaker
11 Twin-spotted Quaker
5 Lead Coloured Drab (NFY)
5 Red Chestnut (NFY)
2 Satellite
2 Engrailed (NFY)
Double striped Pug (NFY)
Dotted Border
Pale Pinion (NFY)
March Moth
Early Thorn (NFY)
Chestnut
Agonopterix heracliana
A. alstromeriana
Parsnip moth












Although busy with the wedding, manged a few species around the lighted windows/security lights of the hotel (near Bwlch):

Red Sword-grass (NFY) - or what was left of it in a spider's web:





Mottled Grey (NFY)
Twin-spotted Quaker
Common Quaker
Small Quaker
March Moth
Clouded Drab
Hebrew Character

Plus Psychoides filicivora mines and possibly its congener, P. verhuella (larvae being reared through but will also have closer inspection in the week). 


On return home and cold, foggy conditions, still fired up the garden trap last night which yielded zip!


But all in all a very productive weekend all round.

Dave

A strange case of 50 not out

Having been very active in searching for early stages (mines, larvae, cases etc) I reached the total of 50 species for the year yesterday afternoon whilst searching lichen-covered headstones in a churchyard!

There were dozens of Luffia ferchaultella cases wherever there was lichen - I counted 45 on one headstone alone.




And in the trap last night, nothing new just an increase in some of the numbers:

Ypsolopha mucronella
Diurnea fagella 4
Epiphyas postvittana
Clouded Drab 10
Hebrew Character 12
Small Quaker 4
Early Grey 3
Twin-spotted Quaker 3
Common Quaker
March Moth
Oak Beauty

Dave