June round-up

Not much happened during the month until the last week, with the year list steadily progressing with the usual suspects but not much of real note. Thankfully numbers and variety picked up in the last few days of the month. Unfortunately, other than one Dark Sword-grass, a few Diamond-backed Moths and a procession of Silver Y, I did not record any of the migrants that are currently winging their way around the country.  Only one new macro for me, a Tawny Shears.

 Tawny Shears - new for garden on 17th June

Dark Sword-grass - my sixth in five years, 16th June

 All black Peppered Moth impersonating a SR71 Blackbird

 White Ermine - second garden record, first in June 2010

 Toadflax Brocade - well established (four in May and five in June)

Ingrailed Clay - every one seems to be different

Broom Moth - a couple every year

Shark

Shoulder-striped Wainscot - common here but seemingly not for other county trappers

Go Figure... into July

July is the month of the greatest diversity of macro moth species in my garden, though that figure may be partly affected by the number of weeks of August I have been away since I started the trap. A nice start to the month with the first warm night for a while, a Newbie and a trap full of monsters. Here's looking forward to a few more over the next couple of weeks...

 Figure of Eighty - new for garden 2nd July

 Deckboard of Hawkmoths - 2nd July - still not had Lime here

Shaded Pug - one of a handful in the last half of June

 Bordered Pug - another one that is easier to identify

 Shoulder-striped Wainscot - into double figures on these this year

 Nicely marked Short-cloaked Moth

Peppered Moth of form insularia (or close)

One for the Year 5 students

My daughter came home from school on Friday and mentioned that they had been talking about evolution etc in class that day and the teacher had mentioned the famous study on Peppered Moths that had showed the selection of the population to the preference of the dark form during the Victorian era. Completely by coincidence I had trapped my first one of the year the previous evening and was able to show it to her. All mine I have had in the garden have been light individuals apart from one that arrived last June, which I have illustrated here alongside the normal variation.

Wychwood Moths first birthday

Today, 2nd June, is one year to the day when moth trapping and proper recording began at Wychwood Moths following collection of the "Ratface Twin 15W actinic/UV Skinner". In that first year, the garden list was 201 macro species (pending a couple of frozen confusing pugs that need to be investigated); but the official garden list is 203 as it includes Hummingbird Hawkmoth which was recorded three times in the garden but all pre-2010 and Feathered Thorn that was recorded in my bathroom in autumn of 2009. Lots of highlights in that period but for pure rarity value, the VC30 vice-county 2nd Toadflax Brocade, one month after the first, was top of the list. However, the thrill of finding such stunning beasts as the Hawkmoths in the trap in the morning still remains, and even among the commoner species there are some more subtly beautiful varieties. I have added a couple of images of favourites here which have not appeared on the blog previously:
Maple Prominent


Peppered Moth


Leopard Moth


Lunar-spotted Pinion

Privet Hawkmoth

Sallow Kitten

Shark

Tawny-barred Angle

Toadflax Brocade