Lindfield Moth Diary - January ’08

e-mail: moths@littlesnails.com

Thursday 31 January 2008

Weather: Cold, light rain to start the night, clearing later, light winds.

Day 219… Yippee and Hurrah! Bulbs at last! Shame about the weather though. Come the morning I found two moths in the trap neither of which I could identify with any certainty but after an appeal to the good burghers of the Sussex Moth Group forum, Mike Snelling was kindly forthcoming with the identification of Tortricodes alternella and confirmation of what I thought was Diurnea fagella.

Oecophoridae

1 Diurnea fagella D. & S.

Tortricidae

1 Tortricodes alternella D. & S.

Tortricodes alternella

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Day 218… Well, still no bulbs but imagine my excitement when I spotted a tiny little moth sitting on the kitchen window last night. I was out there like a shot and after successfully bagging my quarry I stowed the unfortunate beast away for closer examination in the morning. My initial suspicion was that it was a Brown House-moth but upon inspection it turned out to be an Agonopterix of some sort most probably Agonopterix heracliana - a.k.a. Common Flat-body - (Same family as but a little more exciting than a Brown House-moth).

Oecophoridae

1 Agonopterix heracliana Fabr.

Agonopterix heracliana

Friday 25 - Tuesday 29 January 2008

The weather’s really not been that bad, in fact on a few nights it’s looked really quite promising which has made it all the more maddening not having any bulbs for the trap. What’s more the weather forecast for the next few days looks pretty dreadful so even when the new bulbs arrive I can’t see that I’ll be putting the trap out again this month…

Thursday 24 January 2008

Weather: Mild, occasional light rain, light winds.

Day 217… I had to turn the trap off at about 4 o’clock this morning as the bulb had gone and was flashing horribly (well horrible for anyone who’s sleep it was disturbing). Consequently, anything that had been in the trap earlier had vanished by the morning which was particularly irritating as, before going to bed, I had a quick look to see what was about and there were a number of moths sitting on or around the trap. These were as follows:

Geometridae

2 Spring Usher Agriopis leucophaearia D. & S.
1 Dotted Border Agriopis marginaria Fabr.
1 Pale Brindled Beauty Apocheima pilosaria D. & S.

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Weather: Cool, light rain throught night, light winds.

Day 216… A damp and miserable night for people and for moths too, by the looks of it. The Catch was as follows:

Geometridae

1 Pale Brindled Beauty Apocheima pilosaria D. & S.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Weather: Mild, overcast, very windy before midnight clear cold and still later.

Day 215… A chilly night (well, the latter part at least), though not quite cold enough for a frost, yet still, there were a few moths to examine. Amongst which was another "flavour" of Spring Usher too, which was so strongly marked I thought it might have been something else at first (see the records page for photo). The Catch was as follows:

Geometridae

3 Spring Usher Agriopis leucophaearia D. & S.
1 Pale Brindled Beauty Apocheima pilosaria D. & S.

Noctuidae

1 Small Quaker Orthosia cruda D. & S.

Monday 21 January 2008

Weather: Very mild, overcast, windy.

Day 214… More of this preposterously warm weather, although it didn’t feel quite as warm as the previous night despite it being slightly less windy. Fewer moths too but frankly, catching anything at this time of year is a bonus and recording a new species, a Dotted Border, really does make it all worth while, in fact, as far as I'm concerned it puts a really quite positive spin on the otherwise almost unmitigated gloom that is January. The Catch was as follows:

Geometridae

1 Spring Usher Agriopis leucophaearia D. & S.
1 Dotted Border Agriopis marginaria Fabr.
1 Pale Brindled Beauty Apocheima pilosaria D. & S.

Dotted Border

Sunday 20 January 2008

Weather: Very mild, overcast, a little light rain, fairly strong and gusty winds.

Day 213… Apparently last night was destined to be a record breakingly mild night for January. Probably not a good thing at all in the broad scheme of things but encouraging in the short term, though again, the strong wind doesn’t help too much. In the morning the I found the trap positively overflowing with moths, well six - the last time we had as many as that was 5 December - of which one was a particularly dark Spring Usher as well as an early Small Quaker (Late February seems to be the normal time for this species). The Catch was as follows:

Pterophoridae

1 Beautiful Plume Amblyptilia acanthadactyla Hb.

Geometridae

4 Spring Usher Agriopis leucophaearia D. & S.

Noctuidae

1 Small Quaker Orthosia cruda D. & S.

Spring Usher (Melanic form)

Saturday 19 January 2008

Weather: Mild, occasional light rain, very windy.

Just too windy, I didn’t put the trap out as I was afraid it might have blown away.

Friday 18 January 2008

Weather: Cool, clear becoming overcast, rain by dawn, light winds.

Day 212… Gosh and wow that’s a whole lot better! An entire The Chestnut, the first moth of 2008! Well, at least it’s something. Catch as follows:

Noctuidae

1 The Chestnut Conistra vaccinii Linn.

Thursday 17 January 2008

Weather: Cold, mostly clear frosty, light wind.

Day 211… Hmm… the weather forecast didn’t say it was going to be frosty, but it did say it was going to be dry and not particularly windy, so, "Carpe diem" (as they say - and shouldn’t that be what ever the appropriate form of the latin word for night is? ) I ventured forth avec trap for the first time this year. Eager for a bit of serious moth-action I went out in the morning to find (unsurprisingly) absolutely b***** all - ho-hum.

Tuesday 01 - Wednesday 16 January 2008

Wind, rain, snow, frosts, and an awful lot more wind and rain have, so far, all conspired to create somewhat less than ideal conditions for the occasional spot of new year moth trapping.