Latest from The Dells trap

It's been a little warmer of late so I fired up the trap (4 x 11w PL actinic).
Nothing new but nice to catch a few moths.
The highlight of the week wasn't a moth but a much bigger flyer. A Peregrine gliding over the garden at about  60 ft.
I was attracted to it by the crows, who were noisily mobbiing it, and the clucking of the local Jackdaws.
It soon got fed up with it's tormentors and sped off to the north west.

Moths:-
17th Feb.
1 ... 2243 ... Early Grey

16th Feb
1 ... 0688 ... Agonopterix heracliana

15th Feb
1 ... 0688 ... Agonopterix heracliana
1 ... 2243 ... Early Grey
3 ... 2259 ... Dark Chestnut

14th Feb ... 0688 ... Agonopterix heracliana

Early Grey,  Xylocampa aereola

2012, New for garden list and larva ID

I meant to publish this list a few weeks ago,
These are the new additions to The Dells garden list from 2012
After 3 years & 5 months of recording the garden moths the total species now stands at 549.
Last year was a terrible year weatherwise but I added 45 new species, mainly micro moths, so if the weather is kind in 2013 maybe another 51 new names will boost the tally to an eye-raising 600.
However, I would need to pot up quite a few micro samples and rely on our county recorder to achieve this,
Do larvae count ?
Leaf mines do, so surely larva must be included.
The only trouble with larvae is, a lot of them look the same or similar, so I guess breeding them through is the answer. Some sort of moth zoo.
Speaking of larva.... here's one I found on one of my Brooms on monday 4th feb.......

It looks easy enough to ID, and maybe it is, but I trawled though UK Leps and gave up.
....any ideas ?  25mm long
So how would I breed it through?
Do I put it in a box with a handful of my sapling Broom twigs only to risk starving it to death ?
There was no visible damage to the Broom sprig so maybe it isn't a Broom feeder and simply got lost while looking for the right type of grass to nibble.Who knows ?
No, I think breeding larvae through would take up too much space and time and is fraught with problems so I'll wait and hopefully trap it later when it is airborne and easier to ID.

2012 new additions :-
1)   26th Feb ... 1932 ... Spring Usher
2)     9th Mar ... 2189 ... Twin-spotted Quaker
3)   10th Mar ... 1659 ... Yellow Horned
4)   15th Mar ... 0890 ... Mompha jurassicella... gen det., David Manning
5)   15th Mar ... 1053 ... Acleris hastiana
6)   20th Mar ... 0435 ... Zelleria hepariella
7)   20th Mar ... 1044 ... Acleris ferrugana .. gen det, David Manning
8)   23rd Mar ... 0483 ... Epermenia chaerophylella
9)   26th Mar ... 0692 ... Agonopterix subpropinquella... gen det, David Manning
10) 18th Apr ... 0607 ... Elachista canapennella... gen det, David Manning
11)   8th May ... 2214 ... Chamomile Shark... ID confirmed, Andy/Melissa Banthorpe
12) 11th May ... 0290 ... Caloptilia semifascia ... ID confirmed, David Manning
13) 16th May ... 0449 ... Prays fraxinell f. rustica ... ID David Manning
14) 16th May ... 0682 ... Depressaria Chaerophylli ... gen det, David Manning
15) 23rd May ... 1954 ... Bordered White
16) 28th May ... 1099 ... Endothenia marginana
17) 29th May ... 1000 ... Ptycholoma lecheana
18) 22nd July ... 1454 ... Dioryctria abietella ... gen det, David Manning
19) 23rd July ... 1108 ... Lobesia abcisana ... gen det, David Manning
20) 24th July ... 0425 ... Yponomueta padella... ID confirmed, David Manning
21) 24th July ... 0891 ... Mompha sturnipennella... gen det David Manning, VC30 1st record
22) 24th July ... 1187 ... Epiblema costipunctana ... ID, David Manning
23) 25th July ... 1438 ...Trachycera suavella ... ID, David Manning
24) 26th July ... 0556 ... Coleophora trochilella ... gen det, David Manning
25) 27th July ... 0536 ... Coleophora betulella ... gen det, David Manning
26) 30th July ... 2105 ... Dotted Rustic
27) 31st July ... 0568 ... Coleophora versurella ... gen det, David Manning
28)   1st Aug ... 0756 ... Parachronistis albiceps ... ID, David Manning
 29)  4th Aug ... 2197 ... Southern Wainscot .. (probably an oversight in the past and recorded as Common Wainscot due to lack of ID knowledge))
30)   4th Aug ... 0379 ... Red-belted Clearwing
31)   7th Aug ... 0521 ... Coleophora conyzae ... gen det, David Manning
32)   7th Aug ... 1803 ... Small Rivulet
33)   8th Aug ... 0420 ... Argyresthia prunella
34)   8th Aug ... 0565 ... Coleophora saxicolella ... gen det, David Manning
35) 10th Aug ... 0936 ... Cochylimorpha straminea ... ID, David Manning
36) 14th Aug ... 2131 ... Square-spotted Clay ... ID confirmed, Andy/Melissa Banthorpe
37) 14th Aug ... 0495 ... Coleophora spinella ... gen det, David Manning
38) 14th Aug ... 1022a . Cnephasia pumicana ... gen det, David Manning ... VC 30 1st record
39) 17th Aug ... 0522 ... Coleophora lineolea ... gen det, David Manning
40) 17th Aug ... 1139 ... Epinotia tenerana ... gen det, David Manning
41) 18th Aug ... 1316 ... Catoptria falsella
42) 18th Aug ... 1716 ... Vestal
43) 23rd Aug ... 0215 ... Nemapogon granella ... gen det, David Manning
44)   8th Oct ... 1042 ... Acleris rhombana
45)  21st Oct ... 1771 ... Juniper Carpet

Here are some more unidentified larvae :-

Above....5th May 2012 on Hebe, approx 40mm long

Above ... 18th Oct 2012, approx 25mm max

Above ... 30th Nov 2011, approx 35mm

Above ... 7th May 2010, approx 10mm

1st Feb 2013 ... Garden traps

After a week of near gale force winds ripping through the garden, a calm night was an opportunity to flick on the traps.
The temperature hovered around the 4 deg mark for a good part of the evening before dropping to near zero.
Nothing was found around the trap but the 15 watt blacklight on the shed produced the first moth since January 8th, the first appearance of Agonopterix heracliana, a very common Dells micro.

0688 ... Agonopterix heracliana

The forthcoming week doesn't look too favourable, cold and windy.