Mothing with Gareth and Hannah

Calm Between the Storms 15.3.19

No sooner had Storm Gareth battered the UK than Storm Hannah was heading our way.  

The last few weeks have seen many cold, still nights or milder, windy nights.  Neither of these conditions work out very well in the garden, especially at this time of year.

The 15th March was a very mild day with highs of 17.2 degrees centigrade but Storm Gareth was still blowing through so it was a very windy day.  The overnight forecast, though, looked quite promising; staying mild with the wind dropping to a light breeze until the early hours when Storm Hannah was due to arrive.  The traps went on!

I ran my 60 watt actinic Skinner trap along with my 40 watt Wemlite/Blacklight combo with the intention of turning off the latter before bed as it has more delicate bulbs which can blow in wet and windy weather.  Peter was running his 60 watt actinic Skinner too.

Moths began to arrive soon after dark but nothing out of the ordinary.  It was still windy at 8pm but Common Quakers and a few Common Plumes were the first to arrive.  An inspection of the traps around 9pm had me running back to the house for tubes; two or three micros were fluttering around both traps.... mental note: NEVER check the traps without some pots handy!  By the time I returned with pots there was no sign of any of the moths I'd seen so I began to search.  I carefully poked around the egg trays in the Wemlite trap and an Agonopterix-type moth popped out and landed on the outside of the trap.  I quickly potted it and carried on searching.  Within a couple of minutes I managed to pot three more micros including more Agonopterix moths and a Light-brown Apple Moth, Epiphyas postvittana.  On closer inspection I was delighted to find that I had three different species of Agonopterix; ocellana, alstromeriana and heracliana.  Both Agonopterix ocellana and A. alstromeriana are new species for my garden!  This A. ocellana photo is one of my stock photos as the one I caught on this occasion wouldn't stay still!

Agonopterix ocellana

Agonopterix alstromeriana

Another small moth appeared around the Skinner but not a micro this time; a pristine Double-striped Pug was our first Pug species of 2019 and a species with a very long flight period;  they are on the wing from March until at least October.

Double-striped Pug

A good start to the night saw 7 species arrive before I went to bed.  Most moths had arrived at the 60W watt actinic and with heavy rain forecast, I turned off the Wemlite combo trap to safeguard the bulbs. 

By 6am the overnight rain had stopped and I eagerly went out to check the trap to see if any more new species had arrived.  In the event there was nothing else to add to the year list but the numbers were exceptionally good for March.  For example, in 2018 I caught a total of 66 moths in the whole of March.  So far, March 2019 has produced over 150 moths with a very pleasing 51 moths on this particular evening.  The larger catch totals this year are partly due to the high numbers of Common Quaker which seems to be having a good year across the country.  I have recorded 100 Common Quakers in my garden this year and together we have recorded around 250 between our garden traps and field trips.  There have been some really nice variations of the Common Quaker this year:

An Early Grey was, as always, nice to see.  Its a species that normally gets going in April for me so seeing them in March is a treat.  They are a variable species and look really smart when fresh.

Early Grey

Clouded Drab first appeared in my garden on 25th February and having not seen one since, I was pleased to see 2 in the trap this time.

Clouded Drab

So 72 moths of 13 species between our 2 garden traps was easily our best result of the year so far.  As conditions had been good, Peter decided to check out the A12 toilet block that can be very productive for moths attracted to the lights.  He found 6 species including March Moth, Dotted Border and Small Quaker but the highlights were 2 pristine Shoulder Stripe and a Diurnea fagella, both new for the year and new for the site.

Shoulder Stripe

Diurnea fagella

We have now recorded more than 60 species so far this year including early stages; easily our best start to a year ever.  A short period of cold weather is due this week but then temperatures are set to rise again making a field trip at the weekend rather tempting!