A vital component of any moth trapping session was missing from yesterday's post, the weather.
Last night's effort had to contend with very different conditions. Where Thursday night was relatively balmy (no lower than 12 degrees centigrade) and the wind was a gentle southerly, last night was cold (no higher than nine degrees) with a fresh northerly.
When I peered at my trap at various times during the evening it appeared mothless, and this morning I glanced out at 05.00am to see no insects around it, not even wasps. No wasps! This might suggest that their arrival could be dawn related, and they hadn't set their alarm. I dashed downstairs, turned off the trap and hauled it indoors before shutting all the doors and retiring back to bed.
When I finally emerged from the pit an hour later I was half expecting to find nothing at all, so I was pleasantly surprised to find moths pebble-dashing the walls of the utility room (actually I'm exaggerating, but there were several).
My final tally was 49 moths of 12 species, about half as many as the night before. Weather is key.
As the variety was quite low, I will be sharing the full details, but before I get to that there was at least one which was new for the year, a Small Blood-vein. This is not a particularly rare moth, although I failed to catch one last year.
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| Small Blood-vein |
The full list was: Light Brown Apple Moth 1, Agriphila geniculea 13, Agriphila inquinatella 1, Mother of Pearl 1, Small Blood-vein 1, Garden Carpet 1, Vine's Rustic 1, Flounced Rustic 14, Flame Shoulder 1, Square-spot Rustic 2, Large Yellow Underwing 12, Lesser Yellow Underwing 1.
I don't think I'll be winning any Moth Night prizes.
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