Hornets have a penchant for Orange Swifts

This Feathered Gothic would have been a new moth for me when I checked the trap at home after the night of 29th August, except that I'd been trapping at Cranwich Heath early that evening and caught 4 there (more on that excursion in this post I did nearer the time).

Feathered Gothic, North Elmham, 29th August

A strange thing happened this night.  I often get the odd Hornet in the moth trap and they often predate some of the moths while they're in there.  This evening I had 5 Hornets (and 2 wasps) and true to form they'd gobbled up some of the moths.  But what was a bit weird was that they appear to have very particular taste.  There were 5 dead moths in the trap, 4 showing clear signs of predation (i.e. wings removed and bodies gone).  Out of 165 moths in the trap they had killed all 5 Orange Swifts (or at least 4 of them) and ignored everything else.  What's so special about Orange Swifts?

A count of 37 Flounced Rustics was my highest ever while other macros in the trap were Green Carpet, Sharp-angled Carpet, Treble-bar, 9 Brimstone Moths, 2 Willow Beauties, Common Wave, Light Emerald, 32 Large Yellow Underwings, 7 Lesser Yellow Underwings, 3 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings, Small Square-spot, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Square-spotted Clay, Six-striped Rustic, 8 Square-spot Rustics, Common Wainscot, Svensson's Copper Underwing, 2 Burnished Brasses, Silver Y, Spectacle, 8 Straw Dots and Snout.

Svensson's Copper Underwing, North Elmham, 29th August

Among the micros  2 Narrow-winged Greys Eudonia angustea were the first of the autumn generation.  The others were Brown Birch Slender Parornix betulae, Little Ermel Swammerdamia pyrella, Long-horned Flat-body Carcina quercana, House Groundling Bryotropha domestica, 2 Dark-triangle Buttons Acleris laterana, 3 Garden Rose Tortrices Acleris variegana, 3 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Rush Marble Bactra lancealana, Sharp-winged Drill Dichrorampha acuminatana, Pearl Veneer Agriphila straminella, 2 Common Grass-veneers Agriphila tristella, 15 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneers Agriphila geniculea, Chequered Grass-veneer Catoptria falsella, Garden Pebble Evergestis forficalis, Small Purple and Gold (Mint Moth) Pyrausta aurata, 2 Pale Straw Pearls Udea lutealis and 3 Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis.

One of the geniculea was interesting, showing more dark than usual between the two cross-lines.  I did check the insides just to make sure it wasn't anything else...

Elbow-striped Grass-veneer Agriphila geniculea (male, gen det), North Elmham, 29th August

This caterpillar has evaded certain identification so far.  I found a pic of a Beaded Chestnut that was similar but there seems to be so much variation with this and other related species I'm not confident one of the other Xyleninae tribe isn't the correct ID.  Let me know if you can help!

unidentified caterpillar (probably something in the Xyleninae tribe?), North Elmham, 29th August

On the sheet next to the trap was this frog.  You don't get the impression of size in the photos but I can tell you it was huge!  Biggest frog I've ever seen!

Common Frog, North Elmham, 29th August

30th August was rather uneventful with 4 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, 2 Common Grass-veneers Agriphila tristella, 2 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneers Agriphila geniculea, Chequered Grass-veneer Catoptria falsella, Narrow-winged Grey Eudonia angustea, Ringed China-mark Parapoynx stratiotata, 3 Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis, Maiden's Blush, 2 Green Carpets, 3 Brimstone Moths, Light Emerald, 21 Large Yellow Underwings, 4 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Six-striped Rustic, 5 Square-spot Rustics, Common Wainscot, 19 Flounced Rustics and 4 Straw Dots.

The clear highlight on 31st August was my second ever confirmed Yellow-triangle Slender Caloptilia alchimiella. Only ever had robustella confirmed at home before.

 Yellow-triangle Slender Caloptilia alchimiella (male, gen det), North Elmham, 31st August

Not a great deal else that day: Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana, Dark-triangle Button Acleris laterana, Garden Rose Tortrix Acleris variegana, Barred Marble Celypha striana, 3 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Pearl Veneer Agriphila straminella, Common Grass-veneer Agriphila tristella, 9 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneers Agriphila geniculea, Narrow-winged Grey Eudonia angustea, Mother of Pearl Pleuroptya ruralis, 2 Common Plumes Emmelina monodactyla, Maiden's Blush, Riband Wave, 3 Brimstone Moths, Light Emerald, 2 Flame Shoulders, 16 Large Yellow Underwings, 4 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Small Square-spot, 5 Square-spot Rustics, Common Wainscot, 6 Flounced Rustics and 4 Straw Dots.

Aspilatpteryx

Went dusking on the patch this evening after work.  Caught a few moths, though not as many as I'd have liked.

The first site had Dark-barred Tortrix Syndemis musculana and Sandy Carpet.

Sandy Carpet, near Bittering, 21st May

I'm pretty sure I managed to put a name to a fly like this in the past, but whether I did or not, I can't now...

unidentified fly, near Bittering, 21st May

Next site scored with Large Long-horn Nematopogon swammerdamella - my sixth this year - are they having a good year or have I just been lucky?  Also a caterpillar crawling up a Copper Beach tree - like the last one this looks a bit like Dun-bar to me but I would appreciate confirmation or otherwise.
 

unidentified caterpillar, possibly Dun-bar?, Bittering, 21st May

Finally Creaking Gate Lake produced a bit more, starting with only my third ever Ribwort Slender Aspilapteryx tringipennella.

Ribwort Slender Aspilapteryx tringipennella, Creaking Gate Lake, 21st May

Also here were Gorse Case-bearer Coleophora albicosta, Chinese Character, Silver-ground Carpet and Green Carpet.

 Gorse Case-bearer Ceolophora albicosta, Creaking Gate Lake, 21st May

Depressing depressariid

This year hasn't been great for moths at home when I compare with what Dave's been getting in his suburbuan Dereham garden.  Far fewer macros (though comparable variety) and way, way fewer micros (with far less variety).  Tuesday night was no exception with a paltry macro total of March Moth, 4 Small Quakers, Common Quaker, Clouded Drab, 3 Hebrew Characters, 3 Early Greys and Chestnut.  It was the micros where the real damage was.  I think Dave said he had 21 or 22 micros of 7 species; I had 2.  Both were depressariids, the first got away but looked like Common Flat-body Agonopterix heracliana.

When I potted the second I thought it looked different.  

This paragraph is not what I originally posted here - I edited this in 2019.  To cut a long story short, after quite a convoluted process I eventually reached the conclusion, wrongly as I now know, that it was Broom Flat-body Agonopterix scopariella, a new species for me. Fast-forwards to 2019 when I'm dissecting moths from 2018, and I have a female moth which I was pretty sure was Ruddy Flat-body Agonopterix subpropinquella, but wanted to check the genitalia to make certain.  They were similar to, but not identical to, the image on Dissection Group website, so I also looked at the diagrams in MOGBI.  Likewise, similar but sufficiently different to warrant a more careful exclusion of other species.  None of the diagrams for other similar species had gentilia anything like it, except perhaps scopariella, at a bit of a stretch.  It wasn't that, but just to dot the i's and cross the t's I had a quick look at the Norfolk Moths page for that species, with a view to following links to see photos of its genitalia.  There staring me in the face was my own photo (below) of my only record of Agonopterix scopariella, and now with the best part of 4 more years' experience under my belt it looked worryingly similar to Agonopterix subpropinquella, and indeed the moth I was dissecting right now.  Surely I had stuffed up?  Fortunately I had set the genitalia on a microscope slide and therefore had the opportunity to re-visit it.  It was indeed Ruddy Flat-body Agonopterix subpropinquella.  I hadn't known, even until today, that this species could show tiny white spots, but it turns out it can.  Bummer.  As I've not seen another since that's one that I now have to delete from my list, and revise the submission while I'm at it.

Ruddy Flat-body Agonopterix subpropinquella (female, gen det), North Elmham, 7th April

Last night we went to the patch but just before dusk our search for lepidoptera or other interesting insects was completely useless.  Absolutely nothing on the trunks and only the odd fly flying.  As darkness fell nothing was showing in the headlights either.  Dave was getting in his car to go when he found the first moth of the evening, a nice Brown-letter Flat-body Agonopterix alstromeriana.  I then drove off finally seeing a few moths in the headlights, one of which I stopped to look at - a fine Water Carpet.

Water Carpet, Beetley, 8th April

Back at home it was true to form.  Not a single micro and not many macros.  One was new for the year though, a very smart Nut-tree Tussock.

Nut-tree Tussock, North Elmham, 8th April

The rest were 4 Small Quakers, 2 Clouded Drabs, 5 Hebrew Characters and 3 Early Greys.

Had this caterpillar the other night and can't identify it.  Anyone know what it is?

unidentified caterpillar, North Elmham, 7th April

Clothes Moth and some bugs

After posting yesterday morning I discovered a Clothes Moth in the house - proved to be Case-bearing Clothes Moth Tinea pellionella.

Case-bearing Clothes Moth Tinea pellionella (female, gen det), North Elmham, 4th April

Dave and I had a look round the patch during the afternoon mainly in the hope of finding some birds but also keeping an eye out for insects.  Many tree trunks were examined, mostly producing nothing, but a single moth was found: March Tubic Diurnea fagella.

March Tubic Diurnea fagella, Bittering, 5th April

This small caterpillar has us stumped - any ideas what it is?  It was on Oak if that helps... [edit 11th April: I think I have an ID now... Common Footman]

Common Footman, Bittering, 5th April

There was also a Birch Catkin Bug Kleidocerys resedae:

Birch Catkin Bug Kleidocerys resedae, Bittering, 5th April

Dave found this leafhopper which I later identified as a Zygina sp. using the very helpful British Bugs website.  Zygina suavis is very similar to Zygina tiliae and requires gen detting (I don't know how) to confirm, but under the microscope the dark hind tarsus seems to have a slightly paler base which apparently makes it likely to be suavis.

probable Zygina suavis, Bittering, 5th April

A pleasant mild evening with enough cloud cover to make us think about trapping locally, but we knew it was clearing up and the temperatures would fall, and both of us had other things to be getting on with, so we decided against it.  It did clear up, the temperatures did fall and when I woke up this morning the moon was so bright I thought it was the MV light reflecting in my bedroom window!  If the contents of my home trap are anything to go by then I'm glad we didn't bother trapping elsewhere - just a single March Moth and 2 Early Greys!