Gadgirth moth trapping 2014

[nickcandlish]

All,
Merely for completness....

19.x.2014 MV (actinic not used)
FEATHERED THORN 1

23.x.2014 MV (actinic not used)
THE CHESTNUT 1
FEATHERED THORN 1

THE CHESTNUT


24.x.2014 MV
NO CATCH

24.x.2014 ACTINIC
EPIRRITA Sp. 2
THE BRICK 3
ANGLE SHADES 1

25.x.2014 MV
NO CATCH

25.x.2014 ACTINIC
EPIRRITA Sp. 1
SPRUCE CARPET 1

Nick.

[nickcandlish]

All,
Once again little to report, the actinic trap ceased to work on the 28th and only yesterday did I bottom the problem which proved to be moisture in the control electrics.
Perhaps if it had been working catches may have been better.

28.x.2014 MV
FEATHERED THORN 1

30.x.2014 MV
DECEMBER MOTH 2
SPRUCE CARPET 1

31.x.2014 MV
DECEMBER MOTH 1
SPRUCE CARPET 3
RED GREEN CARPET 1
DECEMBER MOTH


1.xi.2014 MV
NO CATCH
1.xi.2014 ACTINIC
SPRUCE CARPET 2

Nick.

[nickcandlish]

All,
Predictably little to report, I ran both the MV and actinic traps on the 2nd, 7th and 8th... 1 Chestnut and two Spruce Carpet to the actinic,
1 Epirrita sp and a Micro to the MV. The Micro proved to be Blastobasis lacticolella which although a common species appears to be a good record for VC75, I think a drowned specimen that I found in a wood store gutter a few weeks ago may have been the same species, the size and colouration were much the same as were the rather narrow pointed forwings.
I've been 'having a go' at some number of Micro's which had been put in the too difficult file, an utterly minute specimen which I found on the car windscreen in August became dooable when viewed through a X20 lens and prove to be Borkhausenia fuscescens, once again a common species that seems to have been overlooked in VC75.

BLASTOBASIS LACTICOLELLA


Nick.

[nickcandlish]

All,
The still evenings have encouraged me this week, I ran the MV alone on the 12th and 13th and both the MV and Actinic within a few yards of each other on the 14th and 15th.
Catches at MV were 5 December Moth and 1The Chestnut. Yet again the Actinic proved its worth with 5 December Moth, 1Winter Moth and 1 Red Sword Grass.
The latter was very pleasing because although a relatively common species it was new to me, and even more so because I almost switched the traps off because the sky cleared and the temperature plummeted!

WINTER MOTH


RED SWORD GRASS


Nick.

[nickcandlish]

All,
Encouraged by the still weather and last weeks Red Sword-Grass I decided to trap every night this week....Just for once a good decision!
The night of the 16th produced Mottled Umber and another but rather tatty Red Sword-Grass indicating a local population (I had wondered if last weeks example was a wanderer).
Mottled Umber in its various guises has been a feature of the week including one specimen which I thought had a tick on its head (see below), in the event the 'tick' proved to be a bit of debris, shame really it could have been quite interesting.
Until Iain's post on the subject I hadn't realised that Scarce Umber was a possibility, given the variability of Mottled Umber I found myself trying to make the less distinctly marked specimens into Scarce Umber.....Roy Leverton kindly determined both Mottled and Scarce for me, other than colouration the diagnostic feature is forewing shape, something not mentioned in any of my books, I quote the relevant passage from an Email.
"When the markings are obscure, forewing shape is the most useful guide, with the outer margin slightly sinuous in Mottled Umber but evenly curved in Scarce Umber.. Not sure that the presence or absence of hindwing terminal dots is a useful feature."
MOTTLED UMBER

MOTTLED UMBER

MOTTLED UMBER

SCARCE UMBER


16th MV
NO CATCH
16th ACTINIC
RED SWORD-GRASS 1
MOTTLED UMBER 1

17th MV
WINTER MOTH 1
SPRUCE CARPET 2
DECEMBER MOTH 2
MOTTLED UMBER 1
17th ACTINIC
DECEMBER MOTH 7
WINTER MOTH 1
SPRUCE CARPET 1

18th MV
DECEMBER MOTH 2
SPRUCE CARPET 1
18th ACTINIC
DECEMBER MOTH 1

19th MV
DECEMBER MOTH 2
MOTTLED UMBER 1
SPRUCE CARPET 1
19th ACTINIC
DECEMBER MOTH 4
SPRUCE CARPET 1

20th MV
ANGLE SHADES 1
SPRUCE CARPET 3
WINTER MOTH 2
DECEMBER MOTH 2
20th ACTINIC
DECEMBER MOTH 2
SCARCE UMBER 1

21st MV
NO CATCH
21st ACTINIC
NO CATCH (Very wet and breezy)

22nd MV
NO CATCH
22nd ACTINIC
MOTTLED UMBER 2
DECEMBER MOTH 3
SPRUCE CARPET 1

The weather looks set to stay fair through next week, it will be interesting to see how the catches hold up.

Nick.

[ron]

Hi Nick,
Nice to see there are still moths around but to trap every night brings the danger of catching the same moth twice, howerver when it comes to Scarce and Mottled Umber ( not sure if you have a copy yet ) W&T has a good description under Scarce Umber whereby it mentions Mottled Umber : Highly variable, with forewing more elongated, NEVER GOLDEN, often with bold round central spot. Myself i thought size might have played a part, when it comes to forewing shape i`m afraid my eyes are not up to it. Have to say some of your photos recently have been outstanding pity they can`t be down loaded ( well they can but they can`t be opened ) Linux or Microsoft don`t have the codex for such a file.
Ron

[nickcandlish]

Ron,
Re the images I upgraded from an 8meg pocket Fuji to a 16meg DSLR Fuji towards the end of August, biggest problem with that was that my computer got a bit slow until I realised that there were almost 700 discarded 16meg images in the recycle bin, emptying it made things much faster!
As it's now dark when I do the traps in the morning anything I want to take a picture of gets bunged in the fridge until I get home, I then mostly tap them out onto a sheet of cork and invert the pot over them, by and large after a bit of a walk about they settle quite contentedly (maybe they like the texture) allowing me plenty of time to take the images illuminated with a daylight simulation lamp.
As to multiple captures, as I don't percieve it to be cruel I can't see that it matters too much provided that they are not released to become bird food. By trapping most nights I feel that I maximise the chances of picking up the locally unrecorded / unusual species to the benefit of the national dataset, not to mention my own personal interest!
I reckon this year is about over, Northern Winter Moth would be nice but I think that walking the dog with net in hand is more likely to produce than the traps.
PS If there are any images that you really want let me know and I'll happily Email them to you.

Nick.

[IainH]

Hi Ron,

Re. saving the images, have you tried right-clicking on the photo and selecting 'view image', then, when you're taken to a new page, right-clicking on the image again and selecting 'view image', then when you're taken to that page (on which the photo is surrounded by a dark background) right-clicking and selecting 'save image as'? This seems to work for me.

Iain

[ron]

Hi Nick/Iain,
What a supper piece of info, how someone worked that out beats me, yes i have now tried it and it worked for me also. Reason this was mentioned is that i too was using photobucket and at this time of year i play around with computers, i have 7 or 8 hdd rangeing from 20gb --1Tb and as many memory sticks. I also like to try out different systems and in the process i normally have lost some files, which in the past was simply no problem i would go on to this site and download some of the pics that i had uploaded ( 0ne click ) but with photobucket untill now was impossible. Now that i think i have got to grips with IMGUR.COM ( one click ) i will use that from now on, but as the saying goes it has made my day.
Ron

[nickcandlish]

All,
Predictably a bit of a drop when compared with last week.Time ,I think, to apply some common sense and chuck the seven nights a week trapping! Results such as they were below.

MV
NO CATCH 4 NIGHTS
DECEMBER MOTH 2
WINTER MOTH 1
THE CHESTNUT 1
SPRUCE CARPET 1

ACTINIC
NO CATCH 1NIGHT
SCARCE UMBER 1
THE CHESTNUT 1
MOTTLED UMBER 2
DECEMBER MOTH 3

WINTER MOTH

MOTTLED UMBER

SCARCE UMBER

THE CHESTNUT


Nick.