Saturday 11 June 2016

PWC Moth Night Postscript

One of the micro moths that came to the trap, on Thursday night was this one. It looked quite metallic in real life and really distinctive, but whether through lack of time or tiredness, I failed to identify it, so took a couple of shots of it. On Friday, still lacking sleep, I had another go at identifying it from the photos, but without success, so I posted it on the GMRG blogsite.
Ian Morgan replied to my post, pointing out that it was probably a male Ptycholoma lecheana and so it proved to be. It is supposedly common, but it is the first time I've ever seen it.

Ptycholoma lecheana


Getting out of the car in Aberdare, this morning, I was surprised to see an Alder Kitten  on the inside of my door. It must have got into the car, when we were packing up, on Friday morning. We hadn't seen any Kittens at the traps, so this was a new species for the evening and also new to the reserve.

I notice that Mike had a good catch of Diamond-backs, but in my garden trap this morning, aside from the mediocre catch of mainly Heart and Darts and Flames, I counted a staggering 299 Diamond-backs, either on the outside or within the trap, plus well over a hundred which left in a cloud as soon as the trap was opened. For recording purposes, I rounded down to 400, but the true number was most likely much higher and may have been closer to 500. The garden is full of the little beauties.

Two Diamond-back Moths


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