October Moth review

 As the temperatures begin to drop, so the moth numbers reflect these changes. In October, I trapped on all but two days for the month, taking just 187 moths.

New macro species for the year were all as expected: In total, 9 species made up of: Blair's shoulder knot (2nd Oct,) Red green carpet (3rd,) Merveille du Jour (7th,) Black rustic (10th,) November moth (all gen detted 13th,) Yellow line quaker (20th,) Feathered thorn (24th,) Red line quaker (27th) and Brick on the 31st.

Black rustic

Brick

Blair's shoulder knot

Feathered thorn

Red Green carpets

Red line quaker

Merveille du Jour

November moth

Yellow line quaker

Only 3 new micros were recorded in October: Acleris rhombana (7th,) Lyonetia clerkella (9th, leaf mine evidence upon the garden apple tree) and Udea ferrugalis on the 20th October.

Acleris rhombana

Leafmine evidence of Lyonetia clerkella on apple

Udea ferrugalis

The October additions took me species list for 2021 to a reasonable, but no where near record breaking 402 species for our small garden with a Skinner 125 MV trap placed at the bottom of this long and thin habitat. This number made up of 243 macro species and 159 micros.

Only a few more possibilities to add to the list, plus a little more checking for leaf mines over the next week. I am expecting Sprawler, Winter moth and December moth plus always the chance of a good micro and a rarer migrant. However, the first night trapping for November coincided with the first frost of the season, consequently an empty trap and night time temps look to remain low for the next week or two.

By the 31st October I had recorded 8036 moths and only anticipate this total rising by 50 or so by the end of the year.