Back at the end of July we spent a week at Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast. We were pet sitting for family whilst they took a well deserved holiday. Was this a charitable act on our part to help out some nice people or did we view it as a free weeks holiday in a lovely part of the country. Actually it was a bit of both but if I am honest a week away with the promise of some good mothing made for an easy decision.
Given the poor returns so far this year, in our garden on the south coast, a real rural retreat offered the promise of some decent catches.
Although we had a couple of windy night, the weather for the rest of the week was good and resulted in a few busy mornings identifying and photographing the moths. I never have time to photograph them all but a few of the more interesting ones are shown below. Most are firsts for the year or ones that I don't see very often but there are a couple of micros that were new for me and also my first Small Rivulet.
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| Barred Hook-tip - Watsonalla cultraria |
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| Beautiful Hook-tip - Laspeyria flexula |
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| Bullrush Veneer - Calamotropha paludella |
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| Burnished Brass - Diachrysia chrysitis |
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| Chestnut Leafroller - Pammene fasciana |
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| Cinnabar - Tyria jacobaeae |
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| Cloaked Minor - Mesoligia furuncula |
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| Dun-bar - Cosmia trapezina |
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| Ear Moth - Amphipoea agg |
Ear Moth, there are are four species of these moths in the genus Amphipoea they are difficult to tell apart and can only be confidently identified by gentitalia examination. This specimen is most likely to be the Ear Moth Amphipoea oculea, the other less common species being, Large Ear Amphipoea lucens, Saltern Ear Amphipoea fucusa, and Crinan Ear Amphipoea crinanensis.
You can only wonder at the Victorian entomologists that managed to determine that there were four species and to identify the differences between them. Particularly given the limited equipment they would have been working with.
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| Festoon - Apoda limacodes |
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| Gold Triangle - Hypsopygia costalis |
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| Gorse Wanderer - Brachmia blandella |
The next I can only identify as Cnephasia sp. Perhaps if I had taken more and clearer pictures I could have made a better attempt at identification but these species really require dissection to be get an acceptable record.
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| Cnephasia sp. |
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| Large Emerald - Geometra papilionaria |
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| Privet Hawk-moth - Sphinx ligustri |
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| Small Fan-footed Wave - Idaea biselata |
My first Small Rivulet.
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| Small Rivulet - Perizoma alchemillata |
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| Smoky Wainscot - Mythimna impura |
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| Southern Wainscot - Mythimna straminea |
Another difficult one to identify. It looks good for Spotted Knot-horn - Phycitodes binaevella but again I should really have taken more pictures and a less worn specimen would help.
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| Spotted Knot-horn - Phycitodes binaevella |
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| Uncertain - Hoplodrina octodenaria |
If the identification of the next moth is correct, it is a relatively rare find, being an occasional immigrant species that has recently established colonies in Britain. New for me.
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| Mugwort Tortrix - Eucosma metzneriana |
And another immigrant species again new for me.
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| Marbled Yellow Pearl - Evergestis extimalis |
I am just hoping that I get invited to help out again next year.
