Friday July 23 - Stand by for more moths

 There was news of a Wood Sandpiper at Earlswood yesterday, and I admit I was tempted. But not enough.

It's been too hot to leave the house so we've thrown the windows open and have had the wildlife come to us. Yesterday a Small Tortoiseshell flew into the living room, somewhat impressive considering I only saw one among the hundreds of butterflies at Morton Bagot on Wednesday.

Small Tortoiseshell

Nice and easy. 

As for moths, well our bathroom has quite a good pedigree and there have been several species which have ignored the moth trap when its been out, but have readily flown through the bathroom window. Yesterday a Pug did just that and I spent hours poring over moth books eliminating everything on the grounds of size, date, wing pattern before deciding I had no idea what it was. MothIDUK took about a millisecond to tell me it was a Slender Pug. Its not even a tick! I identified my only previous one for myself back in 2018. 

Slender Pug

I thought it was too large, but it's just at or marginally beyond the top end of their size range.

Last night I had a moth that was a tick, and I knew immediately I'd need help. The dreaded tiny moth turned out to be from another new moth genus, Batrachedridae. Batrachedra praeangusta turns out to be quite common, and thanks again go to @UKMothID for saving me from hours of internet fun.

Batrachedra praeangusta

Cooler, damper days are just around the corner, but before that Friday night is moth night. I'm expecting a lot. To be continued....

Well it was a lot windier than I had expected, and an east wind at that, so my overnight haul of 101 moths of 46 species was pretty satisfactory. It contained one completely new species Chinese Character, and one which I had identified in the garden a few years ago (pre-moth trap) and hadn't caught since, Small Fan-footed Wave. Also getting a special mention is Buff Footman (first since 2018), Least Yellow Underwing, not recorded last year, and Sharp-angled Carpet, second for the garden and a very attractive moth.

Chinese Character

The full list is as follows:

Bird-cherry Ermine 2,    Bryotropha affinis 2,    Brown House Moth 1,    Crassa unitella 1 (nfy),    Ypsolopha sequella 1 (nfy),    Red-barred Tortrix 2,    Bud Moth 2,    Cydia splendana 2,    Celypha lacunana 1,    Gypsonoma dealbana 1,    Pammene fasciana 2,    Phycita roborella 5,   Euzophera pinguis 1 (nfy),    Eudonia lacustrata 2,    Eudonia mercurella 1,    Garden Grass-veneer 4,    Crambus pascuella 3,    Water Veneer 14,    Small Magpie 1,    Chinese Character 1 (nfg),    Small Fan-footed Wave 1 (nfy),    Riband Wave 2,    Sharp-angled Carpet 1 (nfy),    Dusky Thorn 1 (nfy),    Black Arches 3,    Buff Footman 1 (nfy),    Common Footman 10,    Scarce Footman 2,    Ruby Tiger 2 (nfy),    Coronet 3,    Poplar Grey 1,    Grey/Dark Dagger 1 (nfy),    Silver Y 1 (nfy),    Common Rustic ag 2,    Cloaked Minor 1 (nfy),    Marbled Minor ag 2,    Uncertain 3,    Straw Underwing 1 (nfy),    Heart and Dart 4,    Shuttle-shaped Dart 2,    Smoky Wainscot 3,    Bright-line Brown-eye 1 (nfy),    Large Yellow Underwing 1,    Least Yellow Underwing 2 (nfy),          Double Square-spot 2.