Early June moth trapping

Compared to the 23-24 May, there were many more moths in the trap when I looked at it early on 5th June. I had so much quiet fun, and had forgotten how addictive going through the trap contents can be. You just never really know what you're going to get. But, deary me, my identification skills are so rusty, I'm still trying to sort everything out a month later!

A benefit of setting up the trap on my patio is that I can sit on the swing seat while I empty it and record the contents (and the swing seat canopy shades the light from shining directly into my next-door neighbour's back bedroom. The light doesn't bother me, but it would be unfair to disrupt other people's sleep!)
Another benefit is that, if it's warm enough, I can deal with the contents while I'm still in my pyjamas and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours.
I sat in the early light, with just my cats, the moths and various birds for company. Well before the builders in the field behind me started work with their noisy machinery, I could hear a skylark singing. The jackdaws in the chimney were talking, the young making sleepy chackling noises. Sparrows cheeped and twittered and the Blackbirds took turns in and out of the privet. It was bliss.

As it was already light, some of the moths in the box were impatient to go and a few escaped before I could record them. Remembering my training and tips from the former Carmarthenshire county moth recorder, Jon Baker, (if you're slow on ID, photograph everything as you empty the trap), I grabbed my camera and managed to snap the next escapee as it settled briefly on the paving. So pretty! What are you?

I'd caught an unusual angle, but I recognised the white markings; a Gold Spot, Plusia festucae. I've only had one before, several years ago, when I found a pupa loosely attached to a broken flag iris stem by the farm pond. I mused over the white markings I could see through the case ...

and kept it safe for a week or so until it hatched into a fresh and beautiful adult, which I then released back near the pond.

With the moths in the box fairly secure, I looked around for those which hadn't settled in the trap. A strikingly-marked moth was sitting on the side of the growhouse. Yet another which is common but new to me: a Treble-bar, Aplocera plagiata ssp plagiata. It occurred to me that I should start a new list of the moths I've had since I moved to Pembrokeshire.

As I worked my way back to the box and then through the box contents, the number of different species began to mount up. I found another 'Ooo, what are you?' and new one for me on the frame of the swing-seat: a Figure of Eighty, Tethea ocularis.

Look, it says '80' on the wings!

My digital camera isn't the best for close-up shots, but it's proving an essential aid. This cute, tiny thing is responsible for at least some of the leaf-mines on the lilac. Like so many micromoths, it only has a Latin name: Gracillaria syringella. There are English names around for most of the common micromoths, but few have been formally accepted. It would make things easier - the multi-syllable Latin names can be cumbersome. I saw this was informally called a Common Slender, although I would have thought Lilac Leaf-miner would be more accurate. Although you could argue that it's neither lilac-coloured, nor exclusive to lilac (it likes privet, too, and it's welcome to it!).

Gracillaria syringella

Reviewing the photos, I realised that some snapshots weren't as helpful as I'd hoped. Many of the smaller micros are shown in the books in side view and I'd taken a dorsal (top/back view). Then there are some moths which are highly variable. Thank goodness for online sites and help from other local moth recorders!

There were loads of Common Marbled Carpets, which needed to be checked in case they were in fact Dark Marbled Carpets. Dark Spectacles, checked in case they were just The Spectacles. I tussled over the difference between two very similar, but subtly different moths, one of which was a Poplar Grey. The other was a Knot Grass, and I remembered I'd seen a Knot Grass caterpillar sometime previously. A third, plainer grey moth turned out to be another new one for me, the Miller. Were the Small Square Spots really SSS or Ingrailed Clays? (Working from forewing base to tip, is the colour pattern of the outer crossline dark-pale-dark (=Ingrailed Clay) or just pale-dark (=Small Square Spot).) I even managed, with much cross-referencing to other online photos, to identify the two pugs (Grey and Common).
It's like a game of spot the difference (and spot the moth, in the case of a Poplar Hawk-moth which had settled on the pebble-dashed wall) where you also need to take into account the likelihood of the species' occurrence, based on flight season, distribution and status (abundance, or not) for where you are in the UK.

Did I say something about a lack of moths here when I emptied the late May catch? Silly girl, be careful what you wish for! I ended up with 121 moths of 48 species (and that's of course not including the ones which got away!). I'm not going to list them all here, the photos above pretty much cover the wow factor! Highest numbers were Elephant Hawk-moth (13) and Common Marbled Carpet (11). No wonder it's taken me a long time to sort them all out. Hopefully, surely, I'll get quicker as I get back into practice!