mid-October update

Not too much happening at Wychwood Moths with a spell of windy weather, a weekend away and then a switch to clear moonlit cold nights so only single figure counts on the nights that I have trapped in the last week or so. One new for the garden though which filled a gap in the list that I was surprised to still have coming to the end of my second autumn of trapping. Had I been overlooking any of these before ? Maybe not as this was distinctive enough, and I have had only the one so far.

Beaded Chestnut - new for garden Oct 4th

Blair's Shoulder-knot - a regular October catch here. 15 last year, but only three so far in 2011

Common Marbled Carpet - nice to get a white marbled individual. Well over 100 of these caught here, but majority are dark and the nearly all the others are the "orange-panelled" form

Pile of Carpets - Summer 2010

With the continuing coldness of winter, I have concluded that I will go through December with no moths at all this month. So I thought a chance to go through the images from the summer, before this blog began, and pull out some variety to remember the warmer times. To begin a short series of selections, here are a pile of carpets from June and July.

Common Marbled Carpet, the most frequent and numerous Carpet sp in the garden this summer with lots in June and a second generation around end September and early October.

This one is the paler form.

Common Marbled Carpet. This one is the darker form which was more regular than the pale.


Least Carpet (just two of these in July)


July Highflyer (seven of these - all in July)

Phoenix (five of these - 27/6 and four in July) showing resting position with the abdomen curled upwards

Common Carpet (not common at all in the garden )

Spruce Carpet which appeared in summer and again in October

Grey Pine Carpet appeared in June and October - not all grey as this one shows

Garden Carpet - the second most common with nearly as many visits as the CMC

Blue- bordered Carpet (a scarcer moth and from this group probably my favourite due to its beautiful blue hues) - occurred 25/6, 29/6 and 18/7

Broken-barred Carpet (another scarcer local species) - three in June