Moth Trap Update

Over the last two nights I've been giving my new moth trap a good old 'try out'. I'm not daft so haven't been doing this in my small patch of gravel near the harbour. I've set it up at Bun's house instead. Bun's garden is large and mature like Steve's and also has the advantage of backing onto woods, so there were bound to be plenty of moths around to catch. On each of two nights the trap caught around 40 or so moths, which is excellent. This is about half to two thirds of the numbers Steve's caught on the same nights using the much more powerful MV set up. An interesting thing is that although Steve lives very near to Bun we have had very different catches in terms of species caught. Does anyone know if some moths are more attracted to actinic traps despite them being less bright?

Anyway here's a list of all the species caught in my trap (a few picked up near to it) over the last two nights: 88 Moths of 49 spp.

Common Footman 13
Rosy Footman 2
Poplar Hawk Moth 1
Elephant Hawk Moth 2
Coronet 2
Small Magpie 5
Clouded Border 4
Common White Wave 1
Mottled Beauty 1
Plain Wave 1
Common Rustic 1
Flame Shoulder 1
Hearts and Clubs 1
Green Arches 2
May Highflyer 1
White Plume Moth 1
Plume moth sp. 1
Swallowtail Moth 2
Single Dotted Wave 3
Buff Arches 4
Catopitria sp. 1 ( a micro)
Lacky 1
Dot Moth 1
Beautiful Hooktip 1
Ribband Wave 5
Buff Ermine 4
Clouded Silver 1
Large Yellow Underwing 1
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1
Bright Line Brown Eyes 2
The Snout 1
Dark Arches 2
Wormwood Pug 1
The Fan Foot 1
Pretty Chalk Carpet 1
Grey Dagger 1
Small Blood Vein 1
Black Arches 1
The Engrailed 1
Iron Prominent 1
Flame 1
Green Pug 1
True Lovers Knot 1
Heart and Dart 2
Nut Tree Tussock 1
Willow Beauty 1
and 3 unidentified ones.

I can see I'm going to be doing most of my mothing at Bun's house. I will try my own garden again but I don't think there's going to be that much around to catch. I may also try on the beach if the wind ever drops that is! Here are a few photos, mostly featuring a few of my favourites from the moths caught.

Here's the trap in action, emitting its gentle blue glow. It's on a chair because I was worried that if I left it out on the ground it would attract the attention of one of these..

A Badger to watch whilst mothing is a definite bonus.
Bun regularly has up to nine visiting his garden. This is the brave one. I was amazed my little compact Sony camera could take this photo in near darkness with no flash, set on ultra high ISO. Grainy but brilliant in the circumstances I think! :-)

A FEW MOTHS

Elephant Hawk Moth

A lovely Buff Arches

Rosy Footman

I really like this one, a Beautiful Hooktip

One of very few interesting looking micros.
It's some sort of Catopitria I think?

Green Pug

Green Arches (yes I like green ones)


Nut Tree Tussock ( I like the name more than the moth)


Grey Dagger

True Lover's Knot
(another great name and great looking moth too)

Small Blood Vein

Black Arches

Swallowtail Moth

This is one of my unknown trio. Great camouflage though!