August moth report

After the very hectic July, things calmed down a little during August, but still plenty of new records for the year and several new for Little Hadham Parish.
All didn't start well as I left the portable 15W heat trap in a local wood on the first and returned having given a presentation on The Birds of The Camargue to find the trap switched off and overturned, probably a nosy fox or badger. I set it up again, checked the battery life and returned at 5am to find not a lot had flown in during the night. At home, a straw underwing was NFY. An inauspicious start to the month.
The following afternoon was warm and sunny and I had come across a patch of raspberry canes on a now disused allotment. I set the pheremone trap for Raspberry clearwing and left it there for 24 hours. Upon returning, 8 had flown inside the trap. A new record for the parish, my 737th moth species. Several local lepidopterists requested one for their collection.

One of the 8 Raspberry clearwings

Another Jersey tiger on the 3rd along with a Canary shouldered thorn and Rosy Minor were both NFY as was a Plutella porrectella, Tawny speckled pug, Cabbage moth, Currant pug and Nephopterix angustella, all from the garden 125W MV Skinner trap.
The 4th brought more records: Webb's wainscot, Mouse moth, Stenoptilia pterodactyla and Hypatima rhomboidella, the latter being new for the parish. All remained the same until the first of many Chrysoteuchia culmella appeared in the garden trap on the 9th. The following night was the coldest since May, just 10 moths, but this did include  the first of Agriphila geniculea. Another expected August species arrived on the 13th, a Square spot rustic, followed the following night by the first 6 striped rustic. All as anticipated and nothing too exciting. Centre barred sallow (15th), Flounced rustic (16th) Parapoynx stratiotata (18th) and Cochylis dubitana, also the 18th. The latter being another new species for parish records.

Plutella porrectella

Parapoynx stratiotata

Canary shouldered thorn

Centre barred sallow

Moths were beginning to hint at autumn, with regular catches of yellow underwing sp, Setaceous hebrew characters and Square spot rustics in good numbers.
The Heath trap, set on a village green attracted an Acleris emargana on the 19th along with 2 Square spotted clay, which I don't see too many of. This constituted the 250th macro of the year and was followed by finding a Tawny barred angle at home the same night. Again, not a common moth for these parts, this record being my only one for the year.
A Piniphila bifasciana was a new micro for the parish on the 20th whilst the first Lesser yellow underwing arrived on the 22nd, along with another new for the year, a pink barred sallow.
A new for parish Peacock moth was taken on the 23rd
The P. bifasciana became the 740th species for the parish.
An Old Lady and Small dusty wave were NFY, both on the 27th whilst a Pyrausta purpuralis on the 29th became my 10,000 moth recorded for 2018. No other new records for the month left me with totals of 256 macros for the year and 191 micros, with the total moths 10,092.

Acleris emargana

Old Lady

Pink barred sallow

Piniphila bifasciana

Small dusty wave

Tawny barred angle

These numbers are the most I have had up to the end of August and I shall certainly beat last years record of 10,978 moths made up of 282 macro species and 214 micros, totalling 496 species for 2017. This year it looks likely that I shall surpass 500 species in a calendar year for the first time, especially if I find time for some leaf mining visits to the local sites. By the end of August 2018 I had trapped in the garden 199 times and been out to one of 10 chosen sites 97 times. By the end of August I had recorded 34 new species for the parish, a total that should, come December, be close to last year's total of 43 new parish records. Still await a few that I suspect are around along with Death's Head hawkmoth, Clifden Nonpariel, and Crimson Speckled  (I can but wish!!)