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| Moth Night beside the Mustard Pond |
After the fiasco of last week, Will decided to do another moth evening last night. This time, he had a new generator and a new location for us to meet at. We ended up setting the trap up next to the Mustard Pond, which is the new pond that Will and crew had created a few years ago. This was the first time we've actually done a moth evening on this side of Mousehold before, so it was rather interesting to what would turn up.
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| Box Tree Moth |
Though we didn't catch enough moths to fill the trap, the ones that did still proved to be a challenge to identify and at least four of them could be potentially new to Mousehold. None of them were as exciting as this one, which we believe is a box tree moth. If this is correct, then it is possibly the 5th recording of it's kind in Norfolk. This white moth with brown borders is beautiful to look at, but apparently is a pest to box trees and originates from Asia.
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| Feathered Rununculus? |
Another moth that had us puzzling over was this one. We know that this is a ranunculus (a bit of a mouthful of a name I know), but we are undecided to which; large or feathered? The logical choice would be large due to the habitat and food plants. However, the markings look similar to that of a feathered rununculus, but the problem is that the ID books say it is a coastal species. It looks like a dull, mottled grey moth, but look closely and you can see a wavy double 'W' marking and a circular marking on the wings. Which means it is a feathered rununculus, right?
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| White-shouldered Smudge |
There weren't too many micro moths entering the trap last night (thank goodness!) and we believe we were confident enough with the identities we came up with for the ones that did. The one that did cause some time to pass until we decided on what it was is this one, which we concluded that it was a white-shouldered smudge. We also caught a light brown apple moth, which proved less of a headache to identify.
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| Light Brown Apple Moth |
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| Common Carpet (a rather worn one) |
Carpet moths can be as troublesome to identify as micro moths sometimes, especially when they are worn or have their wings closed like a butterfly. But I guess that is the challenge that some of us enjoy (not me though). This worn individual is apparently a common carpet, though it isn't the best specimen around to show you. The patterns are more or less faded away. We will never know what the moth is below with it's wings closed as it escaped before it opened them to reveal it's identity. This is because I opened up the pot it was in to photograph it and the flash from my camera spooked it and caused it to fly off. Oops!
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| The one that got away! |
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| Barred Sallow |
My favourite moth of the night was this one. This colourful moth is a barred sallow. Like most of the sallow family, it is yellowy-orange but has these two very noticeable pinkish bands, one by the thorax and the other at the bottom of the wings, which helps separate it from the other species in the family. This is a species that emerges between September and November.
Here are some of the other things we caught last night...
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| Large Yellow Underwing |
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| Light Emerald |
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| Red-legged Shieldbug |
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| Hawthorn Shieldbug |
