12th May '16 ... Toadflax Brocade

Toadflax Brocade turned up last night.
This is a Red Data Book moth and a regular in my VC30 TL14 garden since 2011.
Numbers are increasing so good news for this neat little moth.

Toadflax Brocade

6th May 2016 ... Warm spell sparks bumper catch

Last week we were scraping ice from the windscreens and this week it's T-shirts and shorts.
The overdue warm spell has certainly kick started the moths with the minimum night temperature at double figures in the Bedford area.
The garden traps produced 20 species of which 11 were newcomers to the 2016 garden list ...
0247 ... Tinea trinotella NFY
0284 ... Caloptilia rufipennella NFY
0647 ... Hofmannophila pseudospretella
0648 ... Endrosis sarcitrella x 3
0688 ... Agonopterix heracliana
0779 ... Bryotropha affinis NFY
0808 ... Platyedra subcinerea NFY
0892 ... Mompha subbistrigella
0998 ... Epiphyas postvittana x 6
1288 ... Alucita hexadactyla
1342 ... Eudonia angustea
1428 ... Aphomia sociella NFY
1497 ... Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
1524 ... Emmelina monodactyla x 4
1651 ... Chinese Character NFY
1724 ... Red Twin-spot Carpet NFY
1728 ... Garden Carpet
1862 ... Double-striped Pug x 9
1883 ... Yellow-barred Brindle NFY
1920 ... Scalloped Hazel NFY
1936 ... Waved Umber NFY
2063 ... Muslin Moth (male)
2064 ... Ruby Tiger NFY
2092 ... Shuttle-shaped Dart x 2
2186 ... Powdered Quaker
2188 ... Clouded Drab
2190 ... Hebrew Character
2306 ... Angle Shades
2389 ... Pale Mottled Willow x 2

Scalloped Hazel

Platyedra subcinerea

End of cold spell ?

April was a bit of a write-off temperature wise, but this first week of May is looking up
Common Pug and Grey Dagger (agg.) were added to the garden year list but species numbers are well down on previous years

Dark/Grey Dagger - Acronicta tridens/psi 

The first Monpha subbistrigella are stirring from their winter hibernation in my garden shed much later than the March emergence in 2015

Mompha subbistrigella

19th April '16 - Latest garden moth trap results

Despite the 2.4 deg min temp. and a near full waxing moon there were a few moths about.
Pale Mottled Willow was expected, Nutmeg was another year first and Mullein was a good find.

Another cold snap is heading our way by the weekend and could persist for a few nights but the next two days look promising in the VC30 area.

Mullein

Nutmeg

Pale Mottled Willow

19th April '16 ... Emperor Moth

A perfect day for putting out a pheromone lure that I bought last year and kept in the freezer until today.
10 minutes later I thought I had a result which turned out to be a Comma butterfly but three hours later a male Emperor was flying around the lure.
Not bad for my garden which is in the middle of Biggleswade town, but these lures can be detected by the male up to 3 miles away so it says on the tin.
I've put the lure back in the freezer  now, no point in distracting more Emperor males.

Emperor Moth - Saturnia pavonia