Herding cats...

Not been blogging for ages but still very active on the Lepidoptera 'hunting'.

To kick start the blog, a few larval finds from this season:

Wormwood (Cucullia absinthii)

Streamer (Anticlea derivata)

Vapourer (Orgyia antiqua)

Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis)

Brown-tail (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)

Miner Forty-Niner

Whilst it may be a little behind last year, I am once again on the cusp of 50 species for the year.

The majority of the list is of course made up of early stage micros and miners plus the customary January 1st tick of Raspberry Clearwing galls and larvae.




The usual suspects are also putting in an appearance at the garden trap, with numbers rising steadily over recent days, including Grey Shoulder-knot, Dotted Border, Oak Beauty and Clouded Drab








...and apologies for the dodgy reference to a Scooby Doo villain, couldn't resist given that it's leaf miners that have contributed most significantly to the year total to date...



Ectoedemia heringella tenanted mines

Moth montage #2: Gypsonoma dealbana

This time it's the turn of Gypsonoma dealbana.



If you've still got Oak, Sallow or a range of other deciduous leaves on the trees near you, you could still find the larval feeding signs of this species.

Moth montage #1: Acleris rhombana

To while away the winter and stave off moth withdrawal symptoms I am messing around with my moth images to produce a series of montages: first up is Acleris rhombana.

A different sort of Welsh miner: Wales trip - Part II

Following on from last week's post - Wales Trip: Part I - there were also lots of miners to be found around the lovely cottage at Cefn y Waun.  Here's a few from the list:

Stigmella myrtilella on Bilberry


Stigmella sorbi on Rowan


Stigmella magdalenae on Rowan


Phyllonorycter sorbi on Rowan


Stigmella nylandriella on Rowan


Heliozela resplendella on Alder


Heliozela hammoniella on Birch


Very different to what most people think of in relation to Welsh miners:

Wales trip: Part I

In late August the family trip this year was to the most beautiful cottage in the Black Mountains - Cefn y Waun. This was the view:



The moth trap came along and plenty of miner searches were conducted too (more on which in Part II: Welsh miners).

Some of the macros to the trap included:

Grey Chi (Antitype chi)


Bordered Beauty (Epione repandaria)


Flame Carpet (Xanthorhoe designata)


Chevron (Eulithis testata)


Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago)


Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica)

Blogging again - from the Raspberry patch

Hopefully back for a while now, work has been manic and reduced any free time and as such no time to blog.

To start the catching up, a few images from the thriving Raspberry Clearwing colony that is just yards from my garden. This female was successfully reared from a larva plus also managed to assemble a male to her later on.

2014: year of the abs?

Already this season I have encountered several aberrations or forms of otherwise fairly common species at greater frequency than before; perhaps just coincidence but gets you thinking...

Treble Lines ab. obscura



Tawny-barred Angle f. nigrofulvata



Clouded-bordered Brindle ab. combusta

Finding my Marbles

A trip to Gloucestershire and Worcestershire over the Bank Holiday allowed me to track down the feeding signs of the Mistletoe Marble (Celypha woodiana) in a very old orchard (just inside VC33).

Spring catch-up part I

What with the Easter hols and family duties the blog has suffered but thankfully the mothing has been pretty good, particularly with regards early stage finds too.  However, just wanted to get blog updated with trap visitors...

Scorched Carpet


Acleris literana


Brindled Beauty


Waved Umber

Pennants galore

Four Streamer to the garden trap in the past two nights, always nice to see this spring moth.

Early call to the Bar

The Purple Bar to be precise.  Another very early record in the garden last night, 31.iii.2014, again far and away my earliest ever record.

Of fire and...

...Brimstone Moth.

The earliest I've recorded this, in my back garden last night.

Into second 'gear'

Or in other words, the second Pinion species of the year attracted to the garden trap: Tawny Pinion.

Had a rather dark example of Pale Pinion the same night so was able to get comparison shots too.

Springing into action

The last week has seen a steady stream of spring species to the garden trap, thanks to the mild weather. Including one for which I had a 'gap' year in 2013, Oak Beauty.



Twin-spotted Quaker



Pale Pinion



Double-striped Pug

Feb and Fifty

Just been getting MapMate up to date and now realise that I have reached over 50 species already this year and it is still February, albeit the last day of February. It took until 25th March to get there last year.

The success, like last year, is simply down to extensive daytime searching for early stages, predominantly of micros.

The species to push the list to 50 this year was the not-so-spectacular mine of Bucculatrix nigricomella in my front garden.






 The new for garden Red Chestnut from my most recent post, was species #51 for 2014, so hopefully onwards and upwards.