Mottled Beauty & Least Yellow Underwing

This morning’s stars were two new moths for my garden, Least Yellow Underwing (Noctua interjecta) and Mottled Beauty (Alcis repandata), among another big catch (132 moths of 44 species). As summer progresses there start to be more and more Yellow Underwings of different species, and the first Common Rustics.

4th July Moths

A few different moths today, including two new ones: Brown-line Bright-eye (Mythimna conigera, #1025), which I also caught while trapping at a neighbour’s a few days ago, and Beech Mast Piercer (Cydia fagiglandana, #1026), a micro found around Beech trees. Still plenty of moths about - 94 individuals of 27 species recorded. All four below are “summertime” moths that fly in a single generation during July-August.

Heatwave Moths #2

The conditions are too good, so I was trapping again last night; this time at home. There were lots of great moths (134 moths of 37 species), including no less than 8 Elephant Hawk Moths and 5 Ruby Tigers. Two new species. Bordered Beauty (Epione repandaria) and Many-plumed Moth (Alucita hexadactyla), and some others that I didn’t feature yet this season are pictured below.

Heatwave Moths

Another warm night, this time trapping in the garden of some local friends. Didn’t catch as many moths as maybe I expected, but still a good variety and plenty of new ones for this year. Brown-line Bright-eye is not one that I’ve caught before.

More Midsummer Moths

As well as the hawk moths and other interesting macros, the moth trap attracted a wide supporting cast of smaller moths: pugs, grass moths, greys and other micros. Here is a selection of the 44 species I was able to identify.

Scarlet Tigers and Hawk-moths

UK’s mini-heatwave means there’s plenty of moths. There were twenty-five Scarlet Tigers in and around the moth trap this morning, and three types of hawk-moth: Elephant, Small Elephant and Poplar.

Lobster Moth & Buff Arches

A couple of new moths among a big haul of moths this morning. Lobster Moth, so named because of its very ugly crustacean-like caterpillars, is a fairly large woodland species found around beech & birch trees. Buff Aches is a very handsome moth whose caterpillars can be found on brambles. Both species fly in one generation around mid-summer.

11 June Moths

Taking advantage of a lovely warm, still and dry evening, I caught a good selection of moths, including my first Elephant Hank-moths of the year.

1st June Moths

Not an ideal night for trapping, as it was a bit windy, but more moths again - 51 moths of 30 species, including several new ones for the year. Swallow-tailed Moth, The Miller and Common Carpet are not ones I catch very often.

Bank Holiday Moths

A fairly typical selection of moths for the end of May. 17 moths of 15 species recorded, which is average for the time of year.

Moths - 11 May

Been busy, so a small delay adding some photos from last week. These are fairly typical moths for May-June. plus the first Cockchafer of the year.

Quakers & Early Spring Moths

After some warmer days, this was the first outing in 2025 for my moth trap, catching some typical moths for mid-March. All of these moths fly for a couple of months in a single generation in the early Spring.

Frosted Orange, Blair's Should Knot & Pale Mottled Willow

As we had a nice dry night on Friday, I was able to put out the moth trap. I caught nine species, including this trio - all of them fairly typical for the time of year. Frosted Orange (Gortyna flavago) flies during Aug-Sept, it’s larvae live inside the stems of thistle plants. Blair's Shoulder-knot (Lithophane leautieri) is found around Cypress trees and flies a bit later - Oct-Nov. It is a non-native species first recorded in UK in 1951, but now widespread in gardens across most of England. Pale Mottled Willow (Caradrina clavipalpis) flies from July-September; its larvae are found on grain of cereal crops, including those that have been harvested.

Blunderwings

Out of 38 moths this morning, 19 were Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) - fairly typical for the season. These are common Autumn moths, colloquially known as “blunderwings” as they fly off clumsily when disturbed from their daytime resting spots. The sandy-coloured Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua fimbriata) is a similar size also with a yellow hind-wing, but this time with a broader black band around the margin. Of the other moths in and around the moth trap nine were Setaceous Hebrew Character  (Xestia c-nigrum).

Moth trapping: End of August

These are from last weekend - it’s been a busy week. Quite a varied catch of fairly typical late summer moths. Elbow-striped Grass Veneer or Chevron Grass-moth as it seems to be called too, is a grassland species I don’t catch every year. A shiny Burnished Brass and a couple of Nutmegs were nice seasonal catches.

Moth Trapping 19 July pt 2

Here’s a mixed bag of other moths and insects caught last week. At this time there is a large variety of creatures on the wing at night.

Moth Trapping 19 July

I’m still catching new species in my moth trap; here’s three from 19 July which I’ve just finally got time to post. Leptocerus tineiformis is a small caddisfly with very long antennae that is found around ponds. Green Arches (Anaplectoides prasina) is usually rather greener than this individual; it flies in June-July and its food-plants are bilberry, honeysuckle and knot grass. Brown Moss Moth (Bryotropha terrella) is also single-brooded frequenting grassy areas and flying throughout the summer.

Friday's Stars

Three exotic-looking moths from the other day… it’s always a thrill to find beautiful creatures like these when you check the light trap in the morning.

1000 Species: Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria)

This morning I achieved my “1000 species” goal from when I started this project back on 1st June 2018, with a brace of new moths. The first of these was a Large Emerald, which with a wingspan of 50-60 mm is our biggest UK all-green Emerald moth. It is a woodland species associated with birch and hazel with a single flight period peaking in July.

#1000 Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria)

Midsummer Moths

Here’s a few more moths from the other night: my first Riband Waves of the season and this nicely green Green Pug. There are more micros now too, including my first grass moths and these two fruit tree species: Bramble Shoot Moth and Codling Moth - the former as you might guess eats bramble leaves, while the larvae of the latter grow inside the cores of apples and other hard fruit like quinces & pears.