My First Mothing Year

 

The first week in August marked the end of my first full year of mothing or at least the end of my first year trapping in the garden and recording the moths that I see. 

I started the mothing to give myself an extra interest during lockdown. I have a small urban garden close to the sea in Worthing, about three to four kilometres from the nearest countryside as the crow flies. That's probably a lot more as the moth flies so my expectations were not high. I thought perhaps a target of 100 different species  in a year was possible, if I included those I would see whilst out walking on the downs. 

It appears that there are a lot more moths in Worthing than I had expected and my target of 100 species was soon achieved and revised up to 200. I had a bit of a setback during the winter months, adding just five to my list in the first two weeks of November and then nothing until an Early Grey appeared in the trap on the 21st of March. I think the distance from my home to the countryside was beginning to have an impact.

Early Grey - Xylocampa areola

April and May were slow, although I don't think I was alone in finding low numbers in the trap, but with better weather in June and July the numbers began to build again. My cut off date for the year was the 5th of August so I made the most of my last few nights to add a few more to my list.

Ruby Tiger - Phragmatobia fuliginosa

Scarce Silver-lines - Bena bicolorana

Shaded Broad-bar - Scotopteryx chenopodiata

Single-dotted Wave - Idaea dimidiata

Grey Knot-horn - Acrobasis advenella

Ringed China-mark - Parapoynx stratiotata

My total for the year ended up at 236 species with 205 coming from the garden list. The figure of 205 explaining why I needed to fit in a couple of last minute trapping sessions. There are also another ten to fifteen that I have not yet been able to identify so the number may yet creep up by another two or three.

I know numbers and lists don't really matter but I don't think I ever really outgrew the trainspotting phase and keeping lists and having targets adds to the enjoyment.

Talking of targets, 2021 was going to be the year of the clearwings. We purchased the lures, did the research and took the lures out for regular long walks around target areas. This worked for the Emperor Moth but we drew a blank on the clearwings. The closest we got was a comment  from a passing butterflier of "What's that thing on the back of your rucksack with the fluffy tail". Needless to say that by the time I got the rucksack off, the clearwing, if there was one, was nowhere to be seen.

We still have the rest of August when there should be a good chance of finding a Clearwing, that is if it stops raining. However, I have already revised my target for these down to one and I am not really very hopeful of achieving that. It looks as though the lures will be returned to the freezer for the winter with a new plan being worked on for next year.