The Disturbing Stats of May

Firstly apologies to H.E.Bates for ripping-off the title of his book, but if only we had had the Darling Buds of May then perhaps we would not have such a sorry tale to tell of the garden moths in May 2013.

In common with almost everyone out there I too have suffered a dearth of moths in the garden and have looked back over the last five years to see just how bad things have been.  The stats below show the species and individual totals for the month of May in my back garden, but note that this includes all stages (adults, larvae, cases etc):

2009 - 98 spp, 650 individuals
2010 - 74 spp, 810 individuals
2011 - 137 spp, 1940 individuals
2012 - 89 spp, 685 individuals
2013 - 58 spp, 253 individuals

To lift the mood. A few images to catch up on some of those that did show in May...

A nice mixed bag

The dominance at the trap of the Orthosia's is slowly waning and giving way to a more varied catch, the recent highlights including: Least Black Arches, Agonopterix purpurea, V-Pug and Scorched Carpet.

Catching up with absent friends

Given last year was pretty dismal at the garden trap, there were many moths I would have expected that simply didn't show, thankfully some of these have already put in an appearance this year, including these two, Streamer and Powdered Quaker.






Other recent additions to the garden year list include Agonopterix arenella and Alucita hexadactyla

A strange Character

Amongst the throng of Early Grey and Clouded Drab last night was this unusually marked Hebrew Character - well known for the variability in its markings, this one stood out though.






Also year firsts of Red-green Carpet and Angle Shades.

Usual suspects already?

Amazing isn't it, only a couple of weeks ago we were all bemoaning the drought of moths and yet already those now turning up are falling in to the 'usual suspects' category...

Now getting a steady flow of Orthosias each night with the odd representative from other families, including a few more micros.

Signs of life...

Having run the trap for three consecutive nights a few more moths are now turning up, although numbers are still very low:

4 Hebrew Character
Common Quaker
March Moth
Chestnut
Dark Chestnut
2 Agonopterix heracliana
2 Emmelina monodactyla

Fifty not out for 2013

Well I have finally limped over the 50 species total for this year. although given the moth drought so far this year I mustn't grumble; even compared to the amazing March last year, it has only taken about an extra week to reach this milestone.

Of course the vast majority of this total are micros, which account for 80% thus far.  The latest species to push the figure on to 50 are: Elachista apicipunctella, Argyresthia brockeella and Epinotia immundana the only recent-ish macro addition being a single March Moth.


Elachista apicipunctella


Argyresthia brockeella

The key to this success is simple - early stage daytime searches (including the rearing through of some of these to confirm ID's).  Many of my trials and tribulations in this area are covered in more detail on my blog dedicated to micros: http://kentmicromoths.blogspot.co.uk/

Dave