Rishworth - 31st August - Overnight Moths - 5

 Yes, after a long break from trapping [well, 11 days] I'm back, and all I have to offer are 5 moths.

Moth Trap 31st August:

Autumnal Rustic x3

Dark Arches x1

Square Spot Rustic x1

Autumnal Rustic, Rishworth, 31st August

Lee Mount - 30th August

 Cool and damp last night but managed two new ones for the year.

Autumnal Rustic

Flounced Rustic

Garden Carpet x 1

Lesser Yellow Underwing x 2

Large Yellow Underwing x 1

Migrants...

 A few Silver Y and 10 Diamond Backs at 7 ish this morning in the garden.

Nat moth night

 Well pretty appalling here with heavy rain..If anyone has Butterfly sightings for last week in August can you please leave a comment..cheers

Stainland.

 Four moths today. Dwindling numbers now, they're preparing for their silly season.

1 x Marbled Beauty

1 x Blasobasis Adustella (Dingy Dowd)

1 x Blastobsis lactiolella (Wakely's Dowd)

1 x Lesser Yellow Underwing

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Lee Mount - 27th August

 Not a lot overnight - these two were the best...

Centre-barred Sallow 

Double-striped Pug

Also mostly looking worn

Large Yellow Underwing x 2

Square-spot Rustic x 2

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x 2

Soil Hill - 26th August

 One moth scrabbling about in the grasses.

Pretty faded - Shaded Broad-bar

A good few butterflies up there mainly on the north slope where there are some decent Buddleia still in flower c15 Peacock, 1 Red Admiral, 4 Small Tortoiseshell and a Green-veined White.

Elsewhere a good few Speckled Wood about in Lee Mount and at Stodfold near Ogden golf course this afternoon.

test from email

Wall from Ringstone (AT) on 24th. No it won't add Alan's photo from the phone. ....

Never mind it's a lot simpler from the camera via computer so here's another Wall from this afternoon on Hays Lane, Mixenden. Great butterflies - well I like them !

Wall

Cold Edge

Many thanks Barry Dyson for pointing out that yesterday I misidentified a Black Darter as a Common Darter. I've compared my photos more carefully with descriptions and photos in 'Britain's Dragonflies' by Smallshire and Swash. At least 4 features point to Black Darter:-
1. Black legs;
2. Unbroken black along side of abdomen;
3. Three yellow spots in the black band that crosses the yellow side of the thorax;
4. A black triangle at the top of the brown upper side of the thorax; this is not obvious on the photos I posted yesterday, so here is another where it can be seen:

Ringstone - 24th August

Thanks to Alan T for sending me a nice shot of a Wall butterfly yesterday at Ringstone.

Also on Soil Hill in the sunshine I managed a few Peacocks, Green-veined Whites, 2 Small Tortoiseshell and a Gatekeeper. Hard to believe the contrast in weather from yesterday to today. Lets hope for some more sunshine soon.

Lee Mount - 24th August

 Not a lot this last few days but one a bit special and one to ponder ! - Now resolved.....

One above and below - can't work this one out - any thoughts ? Thought at first I had a Six-spot Rustic (same size and shape more or less but it's not that.) I've gone through several possibilities with these dark marks on the leading edge of the fore-wing tip but the nearest I can get is Brown-spot Pinion but not everything adds up for that even as other distinguishing marks are missing . Resolved

Dotted Clay

Pine Carpet - a first for me here and only seen one previously at a moth night in Hardcastle Crags some time ago

Pine Carpet

Cold Edge

Black darter 1 female
Common hawker 1 pair

Stainland. Three weeks at Gordon's all night moth drop in centre.

Please read Edwards corrections to the post below, in the comments. I'm sure that someone else will correct my other errors. Keep coming back for the updates.

I have been more-or-less absent from this blog in the last three weeks. This was due to a series of unfortunate events, which I won't bore you with. I did keep a record (of sorts) of the moths on the door during that time. I think the best way to present them, is to list the species. I'll put photos of the moths which I had problems ID'ing below. I really struggled with one or two. I had quite a few firsts for me, I'll put those up also. I'm sorry the list isn't a perfect record, as I said there were some problems.

Over the last few days, the moths have become scarce. There is a glut of them below.

Starting at the 7th of Aug up to the 24th Aug. 2020.

I've had varying amounts of Marbled Beauties. At their peak, I had 14 at the same time. Slowly over the last three weeks, they have dropped in number every two or three days. Today, (24th) I have none.

I didn't really record the number of Blastobasis species on a daily level, it was more of a mental note. When they first arrived, they were all Blastobasis lacticolella. Only after about 10 days, did the Blastobasis adustella start to arrive. In about a week, they were the main Blastobasis species. 

 On average, I had three, sometimes four, Blastobasis species at the same time. I did have nine all together on the 11th Aug. - five Blastobasis a. and four Blasobasis l. 

Some nights, certain moths arrived in pairs, (speed dating?) ; Brimstone, Common White Wave, Riband Wave, Eudonia sp. Small Phoenix and Yellow Shell. The two Yellow Shells were quite different, one being very worn. As August drew on, increasing numbers of moths were arriving in very poor condtition.

Now for the list of all the moths in the stated period. (28 species). 

Photos of the moths marked TBC, are below. Some are poor photos, sorry. Please correct any errors in ID which I made.

Blastobasis lacticolella  (See comment above)

Blastobasis adustella (See comment above)

Marbled Beauties (See comment above)

2 x Brimstone (sometimes two on the same day)

2 x Small Phoenix (also two on the same day)

1 x Large Yellow Underwing

3 x Lesser Broad-Bordered Yellow Underwing (See photo below)

1x Light Brown Apple

1 x V pug

1 x Apple, or Orchard Ermine TBC

1 x Common Lutestring TBC

1 x Lime Specked Pug 

1 x Neglected Rustic TBC

2 x Twenty Plume 

2 x Shuttle-shaped Dart

1 x Antler Moth

1 x Common Garden Carpet

4 x  Willow Beauty

8 x Eudonia sp. (three were Eudonia lacustrata, for certain. I was unable to reach some Eudonia sp.)

1 x Common Marbled Carpet TBC

2 x Common White Wave

3 x Riband Wave (All non banded)

1 x Dark Spectacle TBC (This one is in poor condition, I'm really not sure what it is)

1 x Unknown TBC

1 x Crambus perlella TBC

3 x  Common Footman

1 x Brown House Moth

1 x Square Spot Rustic.

1 x Caterpillar TBC (May not be a moth. It was about 1 inch long)

 

The photographs:

  Apple, or Orchard Ermine TBC

Dark Spectacle TBC

Common Lutestring TBC

Common Marbled Carpet TBC

Crambus perlella TBC

No idea. ID Needed.

 

 

Neglected Rustic TBC

 

 Large Yellow Underwing TBC

 

Finally, some of the moths I was delighted to find.

Antler Moth

Lime Specked Pug

 

Shuttle-shaped Dart 

 

As I got three different examples of the one below, I thought it would be good to show how they change with age.

Lesser Broad-Bordered Yellow Underwing

 

Square Spot Rustic

 

Last of all a caterpillar. I'm not sure it's a moth, possibly an insect or fly. It was about 1 inch long.

 

ID needed

This was a bigger job than I expected. I hope it will be useful to someone, or at least of interest..

Gordon.

Cold Edge

Small copper 1
Red admiral 4
Small skipper 1
Small heath 2
Silver Y 1

Rishworth - Overnight Moths - 20th August - ID? and more Rustics!

 Not a bad night but I think heavy rainfall from 4 onwards slowed things down a bit. There is a fascinating ID which looks like Barred Chestnut.

Moth Trap 20th August:

Sallow x1 [NFY]

Setaceous Hebrew Character x1 [NFY]

Six Striped Rustic x1

Square Spot Rustic x7

 Barred Chestnut ID thing x3

Neglected Rustic x5

Autumnal Rustic x1

Large Y U x52

Lesser Y U x11

Lesser B Bordered Y U x7

Dun Bar x6

Dotted Clay x1

Bird Cherry Ermine x5

Eudonias 30+

Copper Underwing Agg. x3

Neglected Rustic

ID?? above and below

Sallow above Setaceous Hebrew Character below

Lee Mount - 20th August

 At last - a Purple Hairstreak from the house late afternoon fluttering around the tops of two large oaks. Perfect conditions in the sunshine and calm conditions. 

I did have four together on 24th July in Shroggs Park Oak woodland between the park and Shroggs Road but it was nice to get one from the house at last ! 

Wainstalls

Wall 1
Meadow Brown 1
Small Tortoiseshell 1
Brimstone 1 female

Cold Edge

 Silver Y moth 1

Meadow Brown 1

Small Heath 3

Small Tortoiseshell 6

Peacock 6

Small White 5

Testing new blog from email

Swales Moor
Ringby Lane this morning. I didn't expect any butterflies at all in the strong westerly breeze.
Turned out better than expected when the sun came out.

One each - Wall, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood and 2 Small Tortoiseshell

Sent via BT Email App

Ah -seemed to work ok but not tried any photos emailed yet - this one from the camera !

Wall

National Moth Night

 On the 26th to the 28th of this month National Moth Night is on. The theme is Red Underwings & Co. and it is being run by Atropos and Moths Count as usual. Make some sugar and get those traps out!

Lee Mount - 19th August

July Highflyer x 1

Copper Underwing agg x 2

Iron Prominent x 1

Willow Beauty x 1

Straw Dot x 1

Small Phoenix x 3

Eudonia lacustrata x 5

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x 3

Agriphila tristella  x 2

Large Yellow Underwing x 7

Light-brown Apple-moth x 2

Square-spot Rustic x 1

Dun-bar x 5

Garden Carpet x 2

Common Carpet x 2

Mother of Pearl x 1

Agriphila straminella  x 1

Common Rustic agg x 1

Pretty sure this is Common Rustic agg though it had me puzzled for a while though the markings around the kidney mark seem to confirm this species ! Not seen one like this before.

These are puzzlers too.... seeing the full underwing is not easy though this seems to suggest Copper Underwing rather than Svensson's (I think) - though it will have to go down as agg as there's an element of doubt without seeing all of the underwing !

Iron Prominent - straight-forward !!

July Highflyer - photo shows just enough colour but seem to be getting a few faded moths which are better left out of it rather than guess work !

Lee Mount - 18th August

 Holly Blue on neighbors Hebe species yesterday but I failed to get a picture. Also 4 Speckled Woods as well on the same bush.

Rishworth - 18th August - Overnight Moths - Its Rustic Time!

 Not too bad last night considering how cool and clear it was. Any comments welcome

Moth Trap 18th August:

Autumnal Rustic x1 [NFY]

Copper Underwing x5 [palps checked] [NFY]

Neglected Rustic x1

Square Spot Rustic x1

Six Striped Rustic x1

Ear Moth Agg. x1

Bird Cherry Ermine x2

Lesser Yellow Underwing x9

Large Yellow Underwing x30

Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing x4

Eudonias x17

72 moths of 11 species

Copper Underwing palps, Rishworth, 18th August

Autumnal Rustic, Rishworth, 18th August

Neglected Rustic, Rishworth, 18th August.

Luddenden Dean - 17th August

 Having problems with blogger tonight. I did a post, published it then it's just gone .... I'll try again.. !

Luddenden Dean this afternoon - dismal when we got there but the sun came out and shortly afterwards the butterflies started to show. We went around the upper dean from Jerusalem Farm doing both sides of the valley. The east side was best - in the warm sunshine.

Best was a Wall, near The Nunnery and a Large Skipper near the closed graveyard

Large Skipper

Wall - distant on ragwort

Elsewhere plenty of Green-veined White 30+, Meadow Brown 30+, Speckled Wood 30+, Peacock x 5, Red Admiral x 4, Small Copper x 4, Gatekeeper x 1, Small White x 1, - no Ringlets and , surprisingly, not a single Small Tortoiseshell.

Northowram ..15th August

 Smoky Wainscot x 1 , Campion x 1, Riband Wave x 2 , Square spot Rustic x 3 , Dark Arches x 2 , LYU x 31 , lesserYU x 2 , LBBYU x 2 , Svenson's Copper Underwing x 1 , Willow Beauty x 4 , Ruby tiger x 1 , Shuttle Shaped Dart x 2 , Common Carpet x 1 , Antler x 1 , Marbled Beauty x 5 , Setaceous Hebrew Character x1..

Lee Mount - 15th August

This Pug is a little faded (similar to Wormwood Pug) but time of year and size seem to suggest Currant Pug. Quite small with wing length no more than 10 mm. Black and Red Currants in next door neighbors garden could be  a pointer.

Currant Pug ?

 

This micro looks like Cochyls atricapitana. Pink suggest a female 

Also three Willow Beauty below stayed on the fence by the trap all day.