Description


A diary of my mothing activity covering highlights and photos from my moth trapping activities. Mainly Norfolk (UK), occasionally beyond. I may mention other wildlife sightings here, especially insects, but for birds see my birding diary.

Saturday, 7 November 2015

Two lifers on an otherwise quiet night

30 species of moth on the night of 7th September was hardly an amazing showing, but with 95 moths it was one of the best nights of the month.  And two of those were species I'd never seen before, so no complaints from me.

The first, and the most readily recognised, was a species I'd been looking out for.  They're not rare and a lot of people seemed to be reporting them last year but I never found one then.  So really pleased to make good tonight - a Pale Eggar.

Pale Eggar, North Elmham, 7th September


The second wasn't so obvious.  I didn't recognise it at first, so took some photos and potted it up to look at later.  By the time I got to it I knew straight away what it was because in the meantime I'd caught another one and had spent some time figuring that one out.  It was a Dark Ash Bud Moth Prays ruficeps.

Dark Ash Bud Moth Prays ruficeps, North Elmham, 7th September


On the surface of it it seems that this is quite a scarce moth with just a dozen records from Norfolk and recorded at very few locations.  However it's a recent split (from Ash Bud Moth Prays fraxinella) so wouldn't have been recorded until recently, so almost certainly not that scarce at all.

Other moths recorded that night were Little Dwarf Elachista canapennella, 2 Garden Rose Tortrices Acleris variegana, 2 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, 3 Marbled Piercers Cydia splendana, Common Grass-veneer Agriphila tristella, 3 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneers Agriphila geniculea, 2 Mother of Pearls Pleuroptya ruralis, Small Blood-vein, Small Dusty Wave, 2 Garden Carpets, 2 Green Carpets, Tawny Speckled Pug, Double-striped Pug, 4 Brimstone Moths, 2 Light Emeralds, Black Arches, 24 Large Yellow Underwings, 10 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Small Square-spot, 11 Square-spot Rustics, 2 Common Wainscots, Centre-barred Sallow, Mouse Moth, 10 Flounced Rustics, Ear Moth, Vine's Rustic, Straw Dot and Snout.


Marbled Piercers Cydia splendana, North Elmham, 7th September


Another visit from the big frog, or a big frog, again tonight:

Common Frog, North Elmham, 7th September

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