Description


A diary of my mothing activity covering highlights and photos from my moth trapping activities. Mainly Norfolk (UK), occasionally beyond. I may mention other wildlife sightings here, especially insects, but for birds see my birding diary.

Monday 4 May 2015

Herald a new start?

Saturday night's moths were few in number but included a couple new for the year: Chinese Character and Brindled Flat-body Agonopterix arenella.

Chinese Character, North Elmham, 2nd May


Brindled Flat-body Agonopterix arenella, North Elmham, 2nd May


The others were fairly typical of late: Streamer, Brindled Pug, Common Quaker and 3 Hebrew Characters. 

Plenty of other insects in the trap too, among them 4 caddisflies.  I think the 3 smaller ones were Limnephilus auricula which I've seen before but the larger one I'm not sure about.  Think it might be Limnephilus binotatus - let me know what you think if you can do caddis.

Limnephilus auricula, North Elmham, 2nd May


probable Limnephilus binotatus, North Elmham, 2nd May


Another small Ichneumon-like insect was perhaps a Dyspetes sp. - let me know if you have any better idea.

possible Dyspetes sp., North Elmham, 2nd May



Last night (Sunday night) was more interesting!  Firstly the macros... there were only 3, but they were 3 new species for the year.  First up was a Pebble Hook-tip, an interesting-looking one as it was significantly paler than most I've seen.

Pebble Hook-tip, North Elmham, 3rd May


Next was a V-Pug, new for the house and always nice to see.

V-Pug, North Elmham, 3rd May


The third macro was even better.  A moth I rarely see - I saw 2 in 2001 before I was really into moths, only once at Bawdeswell (in 2009) and the only other I've seen was on Scilly in 2012.  Others see them more often, but I was pleased at last to see my fifth-ever Herald.


Herald, North Elmham, 3rd May


Even more remarkable given how this year has gone so far was the fact that I got more micros than macros last night.  3 species the same as macros but more individuals.  They were 2 Little Dwarfs Elachista canapennella, Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana and 2 Narrow-winged Greys Eudonia angustea.  The Eudonia angustea were new for the year - they used to be the last of the Scoparines to appear in any year with a much later flight period than other Eudonia and Scoparia species but in very recent years they've started having a second generation earlier in the year (well, a first generation I suppose, with the normal autumn one becoming the second).

Could this be the start of a new page in this year's so-far unimpressive mothing activity?  Different macros and more micros... let's hope things carry on like this!

I think this Caddisfly was Glyphotaelius pellucidus.

Glyphotaelius pellucidus, North Elmham, 3rd May

No comments:

Post a Comment