New Moths Found on 18 June 2005

Forward to 25 June 2005 moth page, back to 12 June 2005 moth page, to general moths page.

The warmest night of the year so far - late twenties centigrade during the day, probably mid teens centigrade at night with a slight breeze, no clouds, clear moon.  Lovely.  About 40 moths in the trap and again the majority were Heart and Dart.  Others we've seen recently included a few Shuttle-shaped Darts and a Buff Tip.

Ones worth photographing included a few Shears (previously seen here), an Udea olivalis (previously seen here) and a rather nice example of Dark Arches (previously seen here) showing its mohican.

The new catches were:

• a Dagger  (could be Grey or Dark, it's not possible to tell them apart without genital examination),
• The Miller, a really beautiful white furry moth,
• a Blue-bordered Carpet,
• Clepsis consimilana, a tortix (thanks again to Harri Jalava for the ID),
• a Straw Dot (thanks to Joan Oakley for correcting our ID - we thought it was a Garden Pebble at first).

Our first Underwing of the year was in the trap but flew off before we could photograph it.

We put the trap out on the following evening as well and the catch was enormous.  Probably double the number of moths in the trap and as well as the above there were representatives of Burnished Brass, Common Swift, lots of Green Pugs, several Bright-line Brown-eyes, Stenoptilia/Platyptilia, Agapeta Hamana, Bee Moth, Brown Rustic, Light Brocade and Clouded Silver.

More new catches were:

• Scorched Wing, which really does look like a singed piece of paper,
• Green Oak Tortrix,
• Large Fruit-tree Tortrix (male) - the female is apparently smaller and differently coloured (see here for a picture of a male).  Thanks to Harri again for the ID and for the confirmation that this is a male and not a female.