Brenda writes: “It was a good night in the moth trap and I logged 15 species, three of them new! The most exciting was an immigrant called scarce bordered straw or old world bollworm. Numbers in Britain vary widely from year to year. It is resident in southern Europe and Africa and sadly is considered to be a major agricultural pest. They vary hugely in their markings and James confirmed that I had two even though they looked quite different from each other. One of them obligingly revealed the dark band on its underwing.
On the other hand, two other similar-looking moths turned out to be two different members of the same family; a large ranunculus and a feathered ranunculus.
It was nice to see another delicate, a large wainscot, an angleshades and a shuttle-shaped dart! James and I also discussed a moth that could only be a rosy rustic but was about half the usual size.”
New species for September 25th:
Moths: scarce bordered straw, large ranunculus, feathered ranunculus
TOTALS TO DATE:
Birds = 218
Moths = 236
Wildflowers = 280
*I very much doubt that this is the correct plural…..but I like it!