December Moth

 

As I have often observed, moth trapping in the garden effectively finishes around the end of October with very little being caught past that date. True to form, the garden catch for November has been two Feathered Thorn, half a dozen Light Brown Apple Moths and a few Rusty Dot Pearls. Hardly worth the trouble of putting the trap out. What I really wanted was the December Moth which I had never actually seen.

Fortunately I needed to make a return trip to Bawdsey and a couple of nights mothing there delivered a far more rewarding result than the garden at home.

Top of the list was the December Moth, eight of them in total -

December Moth - Poecilocampa populi

December Moth - Poecilocampa populi

Also around ten Epirrita agg., probably all November moths. They all looked the same although in different stages of wear but I couldn't be sure of the actual species so they will have to go down as agg.

 I did read up on the moths in this Epirrita genus when I got home. There are four of them in the UK, the November, Pale November, Autumnal, and Small Autumnal and I may be able to make a better attempt at identification next time I see one. However, there seems to be a lot of overlap and this looks like it needs genitalia examination to nail the identification.

November Moth agg - Epirrita agg

also three Red-green Carpet

Red-green Carpet - Chloroclysta siterata

and a Southern Bell, which I think, for me, is a first for the year.

Southern Bell - Crocidosema plebejana

and probably a dozen Feathered Thorn, all carefully inspected as I was hoping for the similar looking Scalloped Oak, although it was really too late in the year to find that moth.

Feathered Thorn - Colotois pennaria

There were also a few of the usual Light Brown Apple Moth and Rusty Dot Pearls and a couple of Dark Arches.

So a nice catch but it has just made me more determined to add the November and December moths to the garden list.