Winter Moths(males and females)and id request..

Hi all, yes, a fantastic night on Sunday at Hardcastle Craggs with the predominent species being Winter moth Operophtera brumata (see below)

With females as well as males being found on trunks

Also (What surely must be) a female Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria. ID comments appreciated.


Pt 2 was a 1 hour session tonight at 5pm in my local woods just to the East of Hebden Bridge. Again a fine display of maybe 30 Winter moths flying and settling on trunks and twigs. 2 females also found and a Scarce umber male.
Win

Sunday Hardcastle Craggs

|Meeting at 4.15/30 in top car park for a couple of hours,,,,,

Female Winter Moth steals the show at Hardcastle Craggs Sat 19 11 11

Interesting nights mothing,  Winter Moths most of the 27 males and 1 female found by trunk searching with a few males coming to car headlights ,2 species came to actinic ie red green carpet and a small autumnal moth id on size all the others to mv light,about 3ft from base of ash tree we found these winter moths in cop the pair slowly made their way up the tree female 1st with male in-tow stopping and seperating when reaching about 5ft up the trunk,whereby the female slowly crawled upto nearly 7ft higher up and stopped on a knot on the trunk presumably laying her eggs,frustratingly out of our view.we also found a few males expanding their wings.also a few of this form of mottled umber,Bri/Andy

Acleris sparansa  x 1
Exapate congeltella  x1
Winter Moth  x  27
Mottled umber  x 6
Chestnut x1
Dark Chestnut x 1
Spruce Carpet x 1
Red Green Carpet  x 1
Autumnal Moth    x 1
Small Autumnal Moth   x 1

Craggs Saturday Night

This saturday meeting 5.15 top car park..target species   Sarce Umber , December Moth (not much chance ) and Sprawler..??(cancelled ;last week due to crap weather) All welcome...Any Records for this year asap please so I can send them to the YNU in time for next years report.....My computer has blown up this week and has caused no end of trouble..Ive lost all this years records on mapmate,hopefully I will be able to salvage some off the old hardrive but if not i will putting them in to the new year.all the best Andy

Craggs Friday Night

1041 Acleris sparsana 2

1760 Chloroclysta siterata Red-green Carpet 1
1795 Epirrita dilutata November Moth 3
1795x Epirrita dilutata agg. November Moth agg. 8
1797 Epirrita autumnata Autumnal Moth 5
1935 Erannis defoliaria Mottled Umber 4
2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 7
Couple of good hours hours before the rain,

What a beauty!

The first of the Mottled Umbers emerged overnight and lo and behold it's a female.It's practically wingless as well as flightless but quite distinctive and should be easy to find by trunk hunting if they are present.Might try and assemble this one tonight.

Autumnal Moth

After finally getting to grips with the Epirrita  gen det,I managed to id 4 Autumnal moths from Hardcastle Craggs on sat night.If any one catches any in the next week or so can the keep them for me.

Harlequin Ladybird - EGP

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/186782-a-spot-of-bother-in-the-ladybird-worldHad a Harlequin Ladybird in the car park at Cromwell Bottom this afternoon.
I didn't i.d. it until I got home and had a quick google on tinterweb. Apparently, they are an invasive alien species new to Britain and even bite people.....allegedly.

The following link is for an article in t'metro.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/186782-a-spot-of-bother-in-the-ladybird-world 

Craggs sat night

                                               Northern Winter Moth....


1026 Exapate congelatella 1
1760 Chloroclysta siterata Red-green Carpet 11
1764 Chloroclysta truncata Common Marbled Carpet 1
1795x Epirrita dilutata agg. November Moth agg. 12
1798 Epirrita filigrammaria Small Autumnal Moth 3
1799 Operophtera brumata Winter Moth 4
1800 Operophtera fagata Northern Winter Moth 9
1923 Colotois pennaria Feathered Thorn 3
1935 Erannis defoliaria Mottled Umber 7
2256 Eupsilia transversa Satellite 1
2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 10
2262 Agrochola circellaris Brick 2
A realy good night despite the weather plenty of moths still about , torrential rain at 9 stopped us.

A couple of flightless winter moths - sort of....

At last a female Northern Winter Moth has emerged today,albeit looking a bit bedraggled after emergence.No worries about her flying off during the photography session.

Also this other, quite different moth emerged today - any ideas anyone? Should have labelled the pots :-)

Just waiting for the Mottled Umbers now.

All the larvae were collected from Silver Birch in N.Dean wood in late Apr./early May. Northern Winter Moth was one of the most common surprisingly.

Dark Chestnut

Ive never recorded Dark Chestnut locally and records suggest it is not common in Calderdale.This is the closest Ive seen what does anyboby else reckon.???,Also last night Yellow Line Quaker,Barred Sallow,Spruce Carpet,Red Green Carpet,Silver Y, 4 Exapate congellatella and Acleris Sparana



SaturDAY  NIGHT GOING TO RUN TRAP AT HOLLINS HALL FOR A FEW HOURS 6.30 ONWARDS ALL WELCOME

Carpet type

Took me a while to sort this one out.??What does anyone think.??

The Many faces of Mottled Umber 2

The Many faces of Mottled Umber 1.

Hardcastle Craggs Sat night 15th october

Meeting tonight at 7ish in top car park
22 Nov Moth agg
1 Red Green Carpet
1 Brick
2 satellite
Very cold indeed but not bad for a couple of hours,,,,,,,,,

Larvae

Bumped into Martyn at Ringstone today and as we chatted we both noticed larvae Martyn saw the Ruby Tiger and Me the Broom Moth on the wall next to us.??

Last Nights Moths 11th october

First night for a while produced...
Feathered Thorn.....1
Blairs shoulder Knot    6
Common Marbled Carpet  1
Light Brown Apple Moth   3
Mottled Umber            2
Red Green Carpet      3
Yellow Line Quaker  1
Nov Moth agg         1
Spruce Carpet         1
Acleris Sparasana    3
Looks ok for thew next few days..

SAT Night  meeting at Shepards rest and going up Langfiled Common all welcome.....

Brick or Flounced Chestnut or what?

caught this one on 1st October and I just cannot make my mind up what it is, any suggestions?

also this worn carpet on the same date



I take my photo's in RAW format and JPEG, does anyone know how to keep the quality on JPEG's, I know it's not going to be as good as RAW but it does seem to loose a lot of quality, any ideas

Bare Head Tunnel..Shibden(bits and bobbs)

Had a look in the tunnel today,3 Small tortoiseshell,1 Peaock and 1 Herald......
Sat night will be at Hardcastle Craggs 7 onwards
Anyone got any moth reords for this year.???

Late September

B

Barred sallow with small micro underneath.??

Orange sallow 2 reorded this september

                                     Ghost Moth larvae doing well and ready for there first winter

A very late Bee Moth reorded on the 29th september