Passenger, caught 23/9/2006 (National moth night).

Mothing at St Margaret's

Most of the Moth lists and Photographs are from my garden (TR359450) in the village of St Margaret's at Cliffe in Kent. It is situated about 1Km from the sea and has farmland with in 100 metres. The garden is well shrubbed and about 1600 sq metres. I normally run a 125 MV lamp and a 15W actinic light over-night and once the season gets going a couple of other traps. At the moment both are 25W black Lamps. previously I used a 160W blended lamp in one of them. All traps are home made. Trapping dates refer to the date the trap was put out.

Trap Update in 2017. A new 125W MV Robinson was added to a 125W MV Skinner, 15W Actinic Skinner, two 80W MV Morris modified Skinners and a 80W MVMorris Box trap.
Traps are now (2020 onwards) 2x 125W Robinsons, 2x 80W Skinner type and 1x 15W Actinic strip light on a Skinner type .

I try and identify all the Macro Moths, with the micros I am not at all systematic, I do more than I used to with the help of the new book, but there are some that do get through.


Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Willow and Mottled Beauties


Two species that can be confusing, especially when they are worn are Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) and Mottled Beauty (Alcis repandata) When they are fresh, as the two below are, the differences are easier to see.

On this Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) above the outer two cross-lines on the fore-wing almost meet at the trailing edge of the wing to form a "Blob"

On the underside the tip of the wing has a paler square, that can stand out quite prominently and is normally the palest area on the under-wing.

Overall the Mottled Beauty is a more striking moth. The two cross-lines remain almost parallel on converge only a little when they meet the trailing edge.

The tip of the wing can show a slightly paler tip to its surroundings, but it is less noticeable and more or less concolorous with the other pale areas on the under-wing.

I'd been talking to my grandson Jack about these two species and thought that a blog about them might be worth while, any comment would be useful.

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