Review of 2019 and 2020 - Moths: Noctuids (Noctuidae) part 5: Frosted Orange to Rush Wainscot

NOCTUIDS (NOCTUIDAE) (continued)


Frosted Orange Gortyna flavago - Totals of 13 caught in the garden between 21st August and 20th September 2020 and 10 between 22nd August and 15th September 2020, just a little below the average for here.  I very rarely encounter this species anywhere other than at home.

Frosted Orange, North Elmham, 21st August 2019

Frosted Orange, North Elmham, 22nd August 2020

Rosy Rustic Hydraecia micacea - Totals of 14 trapped in the garden between 20th July and 4th October 2019 and 25 between 17th July and 8th November 2020 (the last being my latest ever).  The average annual total here is around 17 but 4 on 30th August 2019 was the first time I've trapped more than 2 together here.  Elsewhere recorded next door on 3 nights, 4 caught at the meadows and 2 in Cornwall.

Rosy Rustic, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 4th August 2019

Rosy Rustic, North Elmham, 14th August 2020

Butterbur Hydraecia petasitis - Singles caught in the garden on 26th July 2019 and 20th August 2020.  Here is the only place I've ever found this rather scarce species - I had 3 here in 2016 and 3 again in 2018, but none in other years.

Butterbur, North Elmham, 26th July 2019

Butterbur, North Elmham, 20th August 2020 (with Rosy Rustic)

Saltern Ear Amphipoea fucosa - None.  There are quite a few inland records of this species so I never assume my Ear Moths aren't this species and check all of them, but so far no luck.


Ear Moth Amphipoea oculea - Singles trapped in the garden on 23rd and 27th July 2019 and 5th and 8th August 2020 - my worst years here to date.  Numbers fluctuate widely here, with 13 in 2015 the best year.  Elsewhere one at the meadows on 4th August 2019 and one there on 18th July 2020.  Another Ear sp. there on 7th August 2020 escaped before I could get it in a pot so I was unable to confirm it - I usually check them all.  They're nearly always male but I caught my first female in 2020.

male Ear Moth, North Elmham, 23rd July 2019

male Ear Moth, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 4th August 2019

male Ear Moth, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 18th July 2020

female Ear Moth, North Elmham, 5th August 2020

male Ear Moth, North Elmham, 8th August 2020

Flounced Rustic Luperina testacea - At least 440 caught in the garden between 4th August and 28th September (my latest ever).  I didn't count them on 7 nights so the true total may have been a little higher, but in any case this was my best year so far.  Records are there to be broken though and in 2020 I caught 1,126 between 27th July (my earliest ever) and 17th September, peaking at 94 on 24th August.  Previous annual totals had varied from 164 to 332.  Elsewhere recorded next door (on 3 nights), 4 at the meadows and one at Whitwell Street.

Flounced Rustic, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 3rd September 2019

Flounced Rustic, North Elmham, 27th July 2020

Flounced Rustic, North Elmham, 4th September 2020

Large Wainscot Rhizedra lutosa - I caught 5 in the garden between 25th September and 24th October 2019 and 5 again between 18th September and 9th November 2020 (the last being my latest ever).  Numbers of this species vary considerably with 27 in 2014, 11 in 2017 but only 2-4 in the other 3 other years.  Also one at the meadows on 8th November 2020.

Large Wainscot, North Elmham, 25th September 2019

Large Wainscot, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 8th November 2020

Bulrush Wainscot Nonagria typhae - None.  I've only caught this species here once, in 2016.


Fen Wainscot Arenostoia phragmitidis - After my first blank year for this species at home in 2019 I caught 3 between 17th and 23rd July 2020.  2-3 a year is typical although I had 9 in 2018.  Elsewhere one at the meadows on 18th July 2020 and a caterpillar at Titchwell on 1st June 2019.

Fen Wainscot caterpillar, Titchwell, 1st June 2019

Fen Wainscot, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 18th July 2020

Twin-spotted Wainscot Lenisa geminipuncta - None at home in 2019 but one here on 14th August 2020.  I had 5 here in 2018 but 0-2 is normal.  Elsewhere one at the meadows on 4th August 2019.

Twin-spotted Wainscot, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 4th August 2019

Twin-spotted Wainscot, North Elmham, 14th August 2020

Brown-veined Wainscot Archanara dissoluta - None.  I've never seen this species locally - records are few and far between in mid Norfolk but there are enough to think it should be a possibility here.


Small Rufous Coenobia rufa - 2 trapped in the garden on 17th July 2019 and then in 2020 singles on 31st July and 7th August.  2-3 a year is average here.  Elsewhere one at the meadows on 7th August 2020.

Small Rufouses, North Elmham, 17th July 2019

Small Rufous, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 7th August 2020

Small Rufous, North Elmham, 7th August 2020

Small Wainscot Denticucullus pygmina - None.  I've never recorded this species locally but there are quite a few records in mid Norfolk so it should turn up round here sometime.


Mere Wainscot Photedes fluxa - 4 caught in the garden between 4th and 20th July 2019 making it my best year to date for this species.  I caught 5 here between 2015-2018.  None in 2020 but even so it seems quite surprising that I should get so many of these relatively scarce moths here, especially as there isn't much of its foodplant round here so far as I know (and the Flora atlas seems to support that).  Finding it rather tricky to tell these from Small Wainscot I have gen detted a few of them to make quite sure, but these have confirmed we are dealing with this species.

Mere Wainscot, North Elmham, 4th July 2019

Mere Wainscot, North Elmham, 16th July 2019

Mere Wainscot, North Elmham, 20th July 2019

Small Dotted Buff Photedes minima - Singles trapped in the garden on 30th June 2019 and 31st July 2020.  I'd only caught 2 of these here before, in 2015 and 2018.

male Small Dotted Buff, North Elmham, 30th June 2019

female Small Dotted Buff, North Elmham, 31st July 2020

Webb's Wainscot Globia sparganii - One caught at home on 22nd August 2019.  This was my 4th record here following 2 in 2015 and one in 2017.  None here in 2020 but one at the meadows on 7th August.

Webb's Wainscot, North Elmham, 22nd August 2019

Webb's Wainscot, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows, 7th August 2020

Rush Wainscot Globia algae - One of the mothing highlights of 2019 was finding one of these in my trap on 25th July.  Not only a new moth for me but this Red Data Book species is so rare that it isn't recorded every year in the county and had never been seen round here before.  It was a fresh individual early in the flight period suggesting that it had bred locally, and this was further supported in 2020 when another fresh one turned up in the trap on 26th July, followed by another on 8th August.

Rush Wainscot, North Elmham, 25th July 2019

Rush Wainscot, North Elmham, 26th July 2020

Rush Wainscot, North Elmham, 8th August 2020

Next page: more Noctuidae

Field Grasshopper, new for the moth trap

The night of Friday 21st July was another good one with 109 species recorded at home.  These included another New Poplar Pigmy Ectoedemia hannoverella, my third this summer - surprising for a species that has never been recorded further north than this in Norfolk at all, not even by its leaf-mines which are usually the easiest way to record Ectoedemia species.  This one was much more worn so I wouldn't have been confident about the ID without recognising the genitalia (though there were enough scales left on it for me to suspect the correct ID).

* Edit 2018: OK, a bit too surprising.  I got a bit more suspicious after having another in 2018 - all these records seem a lot for a Poplar-feeding species given the distance from here to the nearest Poplars.  Having looked into it a bit more it now seems possible - indeed likely - that they are not hannoverella but Spotted Black Pigmies Ectoedemia subbimaculella.  I cannot rule out hannoverella, nor the Holm-Oak species heringella as both the external appearance and the genitalia are very similar between all 3 species, but as there is an Oak tree close by (subbimaculella feeds on Oak) and no Poplar or Holm-Oak very close I think subbimaculella is most likely.  Not entirely sure why I overlooked this as a possibility - probably because most of the photos online show much better patterned individuals than any of mine.

Five new species for the year were also small micros - Brown Birch Slender Parornix betulae, White Oak Midget Phyllonorycter harrisella, Garden Midget Phyllonorycter messaniella, Gold-ribbon Argent Argyresthia brockeella and Golden Argent Argyresthia goedartella.

Brown Birch Slender Parornix betulae (male, gen det), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

A count of 14 Horse Chestnut Leaf-miners Cameraria ohridella was twice my previous best for my garden trap - I'm sure I wouldn't have to go far to find its foodplant but there's none in the immediate vicinity so far as I know.

The other micros were Carrion Moth Monopis weaverella, Oak Bent-wing Bucculatrix ulmella, Common Oak Midget Phyllonorycter quercifoliella, Red Hazel Midget Phyllonorycter nicellii, Willow Bent-wing Phyllocnistis saligna, 24 Bird-cherry Ermines Yponomeuta evonymella, Common Oak Case-bearer Coleophora lutipennella, Little Dwarf Elachista canapennella, 4 Golden-brown Tubics Crassa unitella, Small Dingy Tubic Borkhausenia fuscescens, 2 Brown House Moths Hofmannophila pseudospretella, 6 Long-horned Flat-bodies Carcina quercana, Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana, 5 Cinereous Groundlings Bryotropha terrella, Gorse Crest Brachmia blandella, Four-spotted Obscure Oegoconia quadripuncta, 6 Dingy Dowds Blastobasis adustella, Common Cosmet Mompha epilobiella, Hawthorn Cosmet Blastodacna hellerella, Hook-marked Straw Moth Agapeta hamana, 4 Dark Fruit-tree Tortrixes Pandemis heparana, 2 Light Brown Apple Moths Epiphyas postvittana, Red-barred Tortrix Ditula angustiorana, Grey Tortrix Cnephasia stephensiana, Dover Shade Cnephasia genitalana, Maple Button Acleris forsskaleana, Dark-triangle Button Acleris laterana, Garden Rose Tortrix Acleris variegana, Common Marble Celypha lacunana, 3 Common Cloaked Shoots Gypsonoma dealbana, Summer Rose Bell Notocelia roborana, Large Beech Piercer Cydia fagiglandana, 3 Marbled Piercers Cydia splendana, 9 Garden Grass-veneers Chrysoteuchia culmella, 2 Grass-veneers Crambus pascuella, 26 Pearl Veneers Agriphila straminella, 6 Common Grass-veneers Agriphila tristella, 2 Pearl Grass-veneers Catoptria pinella, Water Veneer Acentria ephemerella, Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis, 2 Little Greys Eudonia lacustrata, 7 Small Greys Eudonia mercurella, 2 Garden Pebbles Evergestis forficalis, Elder Pearl Anania coronata, 2 Pale Straw Pearls Udea lutealis, 2 Dusky Pearls Udea prunalis, 17 Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis, 6 Rosy Tabbies Endotricha flammealis, 8 Grey Knot-horns Acrobasis advenella, Brown Plume Stenoptilia pterodactyla and Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla.

Oak Bent-wing Bucculatrix ulmella (male, gen det), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Red Hazel Midget Phyllonorycter nicellii (male, gen det), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Large Beech Piercer Cydia fagiglandana, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Among the macros Copper Underwing and 2 Fen Wainscots were new for the year.

Copper Underwing (male, gen det), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Fen Wainscot, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

The other macros were 4 Chinese Characters, Buff Arches, 3 Blood-veins, Least Carpet, 3 Small Fan-footed Waves, Dwarf Cream Wave, 8 Single-dotted Waves, 2 Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpets, Large Twin-spot Carpet, 2 Common Carpets, Yellow Shell, Lime-speck Pug, Wormwood Pug, 2 Currant Pugs, 3 Double-striped Pugs, Yellow-barred Brindle, Magpie Moth, 2 Clouded Borders, Scorched Carpet, 2 Brimstone Moths, Early Thorn, Scalloped Oak, Swallow Prominent, 2 Yellow-tails, 3 Rosy Footmen, 14 Dingy Footmen, 3 Scarce Footmen, 2 Buff Footmen, 7 Common Footmen, 3 Buff Ermines, 2 Ruby Tigers, 2 Shuttle-shaped Darts, 3 Large Yellow Underwings, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Double Square-spot, 5 Nutmegs, 2 Smoky Wainscots, Dun-bar, 4 Dark Arches, Cloaked Minor, Common Rustic, Lesser Common Rustic (plus 2 Common Rustic aggs. that escaped), 3 Uncertains, 2 Rustics, Cream-bordered Green Pea, 4 Nut-tree Tussocks, 2 Straw Dots and 3 Snouts.

A Field Grasshopper in the trap was, perhaps surprisingly, a species I'd not recorded in the garden before.

Field Grasshopper, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

There were 3 species of mayfly: 2 Pond Olives Cloeon dipterum, Lake Olive Cloeon simile and Blue-winged Olive Serratella ignita. Having the recent experience of catching relatively large numbers of Cloeon dipterum and seeing both sexes moulting from sub-imago to imago increaesd my confidence in identifying mayflies but with no subsequent records of Cloeon simile until now I'd started to wonder about some of my older records of that species.  At some point I'll check my photos but at least I now know that this species definitely does occur here sometimes.

Lake Olive Cloeon simile, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

A good number of green lacewings too, if not a huge variety: 5 Cunctochrysa albolineata, 16 Dichochrysa flavifrons and Dichochrysa prasina. Caddisflies consisted of 3 Hydropsyche siltalai, Medium Sedge Goera pilosa, Limnephilus flavicornis, 2 Athripsodes aterrimus and Ceraclea dissimilis.

Limnephilus flavicornis (male), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

I had to dissect it to figure out what it was but eventually identified this leafhopper as Alebra albostriella, a new species for me.

Alebra albostriella (male, gen det), North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Other bugs were the mirid bugs Lygus pratensis (new for the year) and Pinalitus cervinus and the leafhoppers Iassus lanio and Lamprotettix nitidulus.

Pinalitus cervinus, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Two beetles were new for the house (not that I would have identified them prior to this year): the water beetle Ilybius ater and the click beetle Stenagostus rhombeus.  Other beetles were the Sexton beetle Nicrophorus investigator, 3 Aphodius rufipes and a Harlequin Ladybird.

 Ilybius ater, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Stenagostus rhombeus, North Elmham, 21st July 2017

Last year when the next door neighbour's grandson was staying I loaned them my spare trap and went round in the mornings to go through it with them.  He evidently enjoyed it and popped round to see if I would do it again this year, which of course I was delighted to do.

A good variety of macro moths kept him entertained inlcuding Pebble Hook-tip, Large Emerald, Blood-vein, Small Blood-vein, Single-dotted Waves, Riband Waves, 3 Magpie Moths, 2 Clouded Borders, Brimstone Moth, Canary-shouldered Thorn, Early Thorn, Scalloped Oak, 2 Willow Beauties, Rosy Footman, Buff Ermines, 2 Ruby Tigers, Flame Shoulder, 2 Large Yellow Underwings, Clay, Dun-bar, Dusky Sallow, Uncertains, Rustics, Nut-tree Tussocks and Straw Dot.

I didn't attempt to keep a complete count or list of every species but the micros I noted were Clover Case-bearer Coleophora alcyonipennella, Yarrow Conch Aethes smeathmanniana, Cnephasia sp., Maple Button Acleris forsskaleana, Garden Grass-veneers Chrysoteuchia culmella, Grass-veneers Crambus pascuella, Yellow Satin Veneer Crambus perlella, Pearl Veneers Agriphila straminella, Common Grass-veneers Agriphila tristella and Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis.