Sunday, August 23, 2009

Thats better!

What a difference it makes when you close the trap up properly. It took me two hours this morning to go through the moths, and I could probably spend another two trying to correct my identification mistakes!

Below are some of the best...



Above - Flame Carpet.



Above - Six striped Rustic.



Above - Setaceous Hebrew Character.



Above - Small Square Spot.



Above - Swallow Prominent ( compare with my photos of Lesser SP below..)



Above - Grey Chi. Now expert help needed. Am I correct in thinking the one on the right is of the form olivacea ? Late Edit - Some of the lads have kindly given me a lesson with these two. The one on the right is a Flounced Rustic. The left caused some debate but taking all into consideration it appears to be a Grey Chi, a species that can look very like grey Flounced Rustics. Blyths Reed is a doddle compared to this. Its asteep learning curve I think...



Above - What a stunner - Gold Spot.

My list goes -

Large Yellow Underwing 171
Lesser Broad Bordered Yellow Underwing 27
Square spot Rustic 19
Lesser Yellow Underwing 10
Common Marbled Carpet 8
Dark Marbled Carpet 1
Dark Arches 5
Rosy Rustic 5
Common Rustic 9
Shuttle shaped Dart 4
Small Phoenix 3
Silver Y. 3
Grey Chi 1
Flounced Rustic 1
Mouse 2
Centre Barred Sallow 1
Gold Spot
1
Swallow Prominent 1
Lesser Swallow Prominent 2
Small Rivulet 1
Least Yellow Underwing 2
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1
Garden Carpet 1
Flame Carpet 1
Six Striped Rustic 1
Small square Spot 1
Willow Beauty ( or mottled ? it was worn) 1

Plus quite a few left unidentified for one reason or another....

12 comments:

Alan Tilmouth said...

Bloody hell that's 282 moths it would take me till this time next year to get through that lot!

Bennyboymothman said...

Nice list there....I'm pretty grateful I don't get that amount of LYU's in my trap!

Anonymous said...

Stewart, your Grey Chi`s are in fact Flounced Rustics. A very variable species.

Glad you blocked the trap properly in the end.

Greenie said...

Great trap , great pictures .
That Gold Spot is superb .

foggy said...

well id love to say those moths are fantstic but i just cant get into them nice photos though maybe when im older i might get hooked but i cant see it saying that i said that about butterflies a few years back i quite like them now who knows.

Warren Baker said...

all stunners stewart, your gonna turn nocturnal if don't watch out!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a career move there with the moths, Stewart!
Ditto Greenie on the Gold Spot - what a gem.

Skev said...

Sorry Dean and Stewart - but I think you are both half right.

The left hand individual is definitely a Grey Chi - note the black triangular marks in the subterminal band.

The right hand individual is a Flounced Rustic - note the shape of the dark terminal band.

Great trapping result there Stewart. Certainly in my garden Willow Beauty outlasts Mottled by several weeks so you were probably right with that one.

Stewart said...

Alan - :)
BBM - You can have some of mine, they are like 'roaches!
Dean - Well I never. Tom has also said the brown one was Flounced Rustic but I never though about the grey one. Its a tricky game this...
Greenie - Its a nice'un...
F - Open your mind Chris to the world out there, its great!
Warren - Too knackered to be out too late....
Rob- Only a partial career move, I've been a birder far too long to change now....

Stewart said...

Cheers Skev, I suspected as much. the Grey one was a bigger brighter beast altogether. It links with Toms comment too.

Emma Anderson said...

Wonderful collection, Stewart - the light trap seems to knock spots of the sticky-stuff-on-a-post approach.

oldcrow61 said...

Beauties all! You're so lucky to have gotten so many photos.