Dog days pending moth landmarks

The dog days of July and August are well under way from a birding perspective with the July WEBS producing only Yellow Wagtail and a rather tatty female Marsh Harrier to brighten the notebook. Fortunately the quiet times for birding are the peak time for moths so the garden moth trap has been providing the action for the last couple of weeks even with the intermittent inclement weather putting a damper on things.

As this is only my second year taking in micros' they have been taking up a significant proportion of my time, mainly due to my short sightedness and inability to nab the little beasts before they head off to the borders. Nonetheless new species have been coming along thick and fast recently the best of which was the Spatalistis bifasciana (pictured above right) trapped on the night of the 14th. Other new micros since my last posting have been the bright yellow and brown Agapeta zoegana (18th), Clepsis consimilana (10th), Coleophera albidella (15th), Depressaria radella (Parsnip moth) (10th), Eudemis profundana (10th), Euzophera pinguis (pictured above left) (18th), Falsuncaria ruficiliana (17th), Nomophila noctuella (Rush veneer) (2 on the 23rd), Pammene fasciana (15th), and Synaphe punctalis (10th). Rush veneer is a moth that I must surely have overlooked in the past when I was only taking notice of the macros'!

On the macro front the best night in the period was the 14th with 104 moths of 35 species however there have been a number of notables (well for me at least) recorded over the period as follows: Small Mottled Willow (10th & 21st), Bordered Straw (9th), Dark Sword-grass (14th), Four-spotted Footman (21st), and Toadflax Brocade (15th). The Bordered Straw and Toadflax Brocades were both the third records this year for the garden and the Small Mottled Willows (the one trapped on the night of the 10th is pictured below) were the first records. All of this activity leaves me waiting for three insect landmarks! The garden macro list currently stands at 299, the garden micro list at 99, and the overall moth list therefore at 398, my money is on the micros reaching a hundred first but you never know....