Paul's Back Garden Safari

One of the most common visitors to the light trap I have put out in the garden over the past month has been the Large Yellow Under-wing. One morning I counted 25 hiding among the egg boxes, all clinging on determedly, and difficult to displace.  According to the UK Butterfly Conservation in the report "The State of Britains Larger Moths 2013" the incidence of N. pronuba has increased by 186% during the period of 1968-2007 (1). The distribution map from the NBN gateway shows how widely distributed it is. This is a fairly large moth with a wing span up to 60mm. At rest it's not the most spectacular of moths, with a base colour of brown, and few distinguishing markings besides the kidney spots on its wings. However when it flies there's a flash of colour as the forewings spread out and expose the bright orange/yellow colours of the rear wings. As soon as it comes to rest the rear wings are folded away and hidden once more. They rest during the day, but will flash their b...

Before owning a moth light trap I had not really considered caddis flies as being a frequent visitor to the garden. But over the last few months I found a number skulking among the egg boxes as I empty the light trap in the mornings. Now I struggle enough trying to identify the moths that I catch and release, but caddis flies are even more of a challenge, as they do not seem to attract the attention of the publishing world resulting in a dearth of accessible field guides. There are over 6000 species that have been described worldwide. Of which 199 have been recorded in Britain, but only 3 in Ireland (1). I think that this chap who I found in the light trap a couple of weekends ago is Halesus radiatus, but I'm open to corrections. Caddis Flies are superficially like a moth, and are a distant relative in the evolutionary sense,  but instead of scales on the wings, Caddisflies have a fine coating of hairs. It is this coating of hairs that gives this group of invertebrates it's nam...

I was able to put the moth trap out again on Sunday evening, hampered previously by the awful weather and being away. Sunday evening was mild and dry, but there was a very light drizzle on Monday morning. So I wasn't setting much hope for a large or varied haul. But as. I started taking out the egg boxes I kept on turning up 21 Large Yellow Underwings, 4 Lesser Yeollow Underwings, a single Double Striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata , a Setaceous Hebrew Charcter ( Xestia c-nigrum ), and a rather non-descript, well at least to me, Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea). More about the others another time, but I have to admit to being intrigued by the name of the Rosy Rustic. As you can see it's not the most colourful of moths with a uniform brown base colour. Even the kidney marks on there wings don't stand out very much. This fairly bland marking and colouration meant it took me a while to identify it. It has a single generation and flies from August through to October. The eggs ...