Species List for 09/10/2026

 Four traps, a 125W Robinson in the Back Garden, a 125W MV Robinson in the Greenhouse Garden, a 15W Actinic in the Front Garden, and a 80W MV Skinner in the Pond Garden. A 15mph dropping to 10 mph W wind, temp dropped to 8.5 deg C with light rain between 0200 and 0400 hrs.  There were 127 moths of 28 species and 3 NFY.

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Individuals
18.001	Plutella xylostella	Diamond-back Moth	1
49.039	Epiphyas postvittana	Light Brown Apple Moth	4
63.031	Udea ferrugalis	Rusty-dot Pearl	1
63.052	Nomophila noctuella	Rush Veneer	1
70.038	Rhodometra sacraria	Vestal	1
70.070	Larentia clavaria	Mallow	3	nfy
70.141	Gymnoscelis rufifasciata	Double-striped Pug	1
73.015	Autographa gamma	Silver Y	2
73.022	Plusia festucae	Gold Spot	1
73.076	Helicoverpa armigera	Scarce Bordered Straw	5
73.087	Spodoptera exigua	Small Mottled Willow	29
73.093	Caradrina kadenii	Clancy's Rustic	2
73.113	Phlogophora meticulosa	Angle Shades	1
73.180	Tiliacea aurago	Barred Sallow	1
73.186	Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut	11
73.193	Anchoscelis lunosa	Lunar Underwing	10
73.223	Dryobota labecula	Oak Rustic	1	nfy
73.230	Aporophyla australis	Feathered Brindle	1	nfy
73.233	Aporophyla nigra	Black Rustic	6
73.235	Polymixis lichenea	Feathered Ranunculus	3
73.295	Mythimna vitellina	Delicate	1
73.297	Mythimna albipuncta	White-point	2
73.319	Agrotis segetum	Turnip Moth	15
73.325	Agrotis puta	Shuttle-shaped Dart	1
73.342	Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing	16
73.345	Noctua comes	Lesser Yellow Underwing	5
73.357	Xestia xanthographa	Square-spot Rustic	1
73.365	Eugnorisma glareosa	Autumnal Rustic	1

..

Species List for 08/10/2026

 Four traps, a 125W Robinson in the Back Garden, a 125W MV Robinson in the Greenhouse Garden, a 15W Actinic in the Front Garden, and a 80W MV Skinner in the Pond Garden. A bit of an odd night weather wise. Early on it was cold, about 9 deg C at 1900hrs with a brisk N wind, up to around 15 mph.  Through the night the wind  move to WW and then W  and the temperature steadily rose to 15 deg by 0700hrs. There were more moths than yesterday, but not back to before the front came through. There were 111 moths of 25 and two NFY. No mega rarities, but I did have a few visitors twitching the content of my fridge in the last two days. 

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Individuals
49.039	Epiphyas postvittana	Light Brown Apple Moth	4
63.031	Udea ferrugalis	Rusty-dot Pearl	2
63.052	Nomophila noctuella	Rush Veneer	3
63.069	Eudonia angustea	a moth	3
70.095	Chloroclysta siterata	Red-Green Carpet	1
73.010	Macdunnoughia confusa	Dewick's Plusia	1	nfy
73.076	Helicoverpa armigera	Scarce Bordered Straw	3
73.087	Spodoptera exigua	Small Mottled Willow	4
73.093	Caradrina kadenii	Clancy's Rustic	2
73.099	Hoplodrina ambigua	Vine's Rustic	2
73.134	Rhizedra lutosa	Large Wainscot	5
73.180	Tiliacea aurago	Barred Sallow	2
73.186	Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut	12
73.190	Agrochola macilenta	Yellow-line Quaker	2
73.193	Anchoscelis lunosa	Lunar Underwing	15
73.209	Xylena vetusta	Red Sword-grass	1	nfy
73.233	Aporophyla nigra	Black Rustic	8
73.235	Polymixis lichenea	Feathered Ranunculus	9
73.295	Mythimna vitellina	Delicate	1
73.297	Mythimna albipuncta	White-point	3
73.319	Agrotis segetum	Turnip Moth	10
73.325	Agrotis puta	Shuttle-shaped Dart	3
73.342	Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing	11
73.345	Noctua comes	Lesser Yellow Underwing	2

..

Red Sword-grass

                                                                   Red Sword-grass 

Scarce Bordered  Straw- a very variable species, this is a medium dark one.

Dewicks Plusia

Species List for 07/10/2026

 Two traps, a 125W Robinson in the Back Garden, a 125W MV Robinson in the Greenhouse Garden. The weather was terrible 20 mph N wind, gusting to 36 mph and the literature dropping to u7 deg C. I wasn't going to put any traps out, but in the end did put out two. Just 35 moths of 11 species.

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Individuals
73.08	Helicoverpa armigera	Scarce Bordered Straw	1
73.09	Spodoptera exigua	Small Mottled Willow	6
73.13	Rhizedra lutosa	Large Wainscot	2
73.19	Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut	3
73.19	Anchoscelis lunosa	Lunar Underwing	9
73.23	Aporophyla nigra	Black Rustic	1
73.24	Polymixis lichenea	Feathered Ranunculus	2
73.3	Mythimna vitellina	Delicate	1
73.3	Mythimna albipuncta	White-point	1
73.32	Agrotis segetum	Turnip Moth	1
73.34	Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing	8

 

up date on 06/10/2026 at Mniotype species.

 I caught a puzzling Noctuid om 06/10/2026. With some help and research, I believe it is probably a Mniotype occidentalis. No English name as this would be the first UK record I know of. Obviously the ID is still tentative, but looking at "Noctuidae Europaeae Essential" it looks a very good match. Excuse the photo. The moth is in a pot as I am being careful not to loose it.

Obviously the moth has caused some interest and I have received helpful posts from several people. Steve Nash said, "Mniotype solieri (Bedrule Brocade) is perhaps more likely, given its recent spread north into Belgium. I don't think it can reliably separated on external features from M. occidentalis." 

This is a good point, although I had looked at several photographs and thought the  terminal border more like occidentalis than solieri. More photos showed that, in fact they can be very similar.

I did some more reading and research and was a bit surprised that the two species were only split in 2010,. and that the Bedrule Brocade was caught in 1976 long before the two species were recognised.  Againing reading about them it transpires that gen-det (even if it was done) is not straight forward and not always definitive, and that the only certain way of ID is DNA analysis. That means that without DNA analysis the Bedrule Brocade is in the either or category.

Hopefully, with the help of Sean Clancy, we will be able to arrange DNA Bar coding for a definite ID. 

Species List for 06/10/2026

 Four traps, a 125W Robinson in the Back Garden, a 125W MV Robinson in the Greenhouse Garden, a 15W Actinic in the Front Garden, and a 80W MV Skinner in the Pond Garden. An amazing night with 293 Small mottled Willows dominating the traps. In addition as well as the moths listed below there is also an unusual Noctuid which is yet to be  identified, so watch this space. There were 532 moths, including the 293 Small Mottled Willows of 40 species (plus one to come).

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Individuals
18.001	Plutella xylostella	Diamond-back Moth	1
28.009	Endrosis sarcitrella	White-shouldered House-moth	1
35.118	Scrobipalpa ocellatella	Beet Moth	1
45.044	Emmelina monodactyla	Common Plume	2
49.039	Epiphyas postvittana	Light Brown Apple Moth	5
49.261	Crocidosema plebejana		1
63.031	Udea ferrugalis	Rusty-dot Pearl	5
63.048	Palpita vitrealis		4
63.052	Nomophila noctuella	Rush Veneer	5
63.054	Cydalima perspectalis	Box-tree Moth	10
63.069	Eudonia angustea		2
70.013	Idaea biselata	Small Fan-footed Wave	1
70.038	Rhodometra sacraria	Vestal	2
70.095	Chloroclysta siterata	Red-Green Carpet	1
70.097	Dysstroma truncata	Common Marbled Carpet	1
70.258	Peribatodes rhomboidaria	Willow Beauty	1
73.015	Autographa gamma	Silver Y	2
73.076	Helicoverpa armigera	Scarce Bordered Straw	5
73.087	Spodoptera exigua	Small Mottled Willow	293
73.093	Caradrina kadenii	Clancy's Rustic	7
73.095	Caradrina clavipalpis	Pale Mottled Willow	1
73.099	Hoplodrina ambigua	Vine's Rustic	2
73.113	Phlogophora meticulosa	Angle Shades	2
73.134	Rhizedra lutosa	Large Wainscot	5
73.180	Tiliacea aurago	Barred Sallow	6
73.186	Agrochola lychnidis	Beaded Chestnut	13
73.193	Anchoscelis lunosa	Lunar Underwing	26
73.206	Lithophane leautieri	Blair's Shoulder-knot	3
73.224	Griposia aprilina	Merveille du Jour	1
73.233	Aporophyla nigra	Black Rustic	11
73.235	Polymixis lichenea	Feathered Ranunculus	6
73.295	Mythimna vitellina	Delicate	3
73.297	Mythimna albipuncta	White-point	11
73.319	Agrotis segetum	Turnip Moth	17
73.325	Agrotis puta	Shuttle-shaped Dart	7
73.342	Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing	60
73.345	Noctua comes	Lesser Yellow Underwing	1
73.348	Noctua janthe	Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing	1
73.357	Xestia xanthographa	Square-spot Rustic	5
73.365	Eugnorisma glareosa	Autumnal Rustic	1

73.240

Mniotype solieri

Bedrule Brocade*

1

*NFS*

See next post about the Mnioptye sp.