Pontyberem

Nice to see a couple of micros this morning, as well as one of my favourite autumn moths the Green-brindled Crescent, plus a less-welcome hornet.

35.018 Hypatima rhomboidella

49.255 Epinotia nisella

73.068 Green-brindled Crescent

Nettle Nester

This caterpillar was in a loosely woven nest on a nettle plant in the garden.  I suspect that it's a Painted Lady larva, but I'm not sure, never having seen one before - and it's supposed to prefer thistles.

Perhaps someone will recognise it.

Bucculatrix cidarella mines

Sam's 2016 list shows 14 county records of Bucculatrix cidarella, which, given that it is a fairly obscure leaf miner, means it is probably quite common.

I've noticed mines on young alder trees in marshy grassland during Marsh Fritillary surveys this week, in two locations in the county (Ammanford and Harford). The mines are narrow and tend to start by running alongside a side vein.

 

After leaving the mine, the larva makes windows by feeding from the underside of the leaf. It also makes a moulting cocoon (known as a cocoonet). The cocoonet and feeding windows can be seen in the photo below.

There are other gallery miners on alder: two Stigmella species, which make slightly broader mines and don't window the leaves, and the fly Agromyza alnivora, which makes a broader mine. It's worth looking out for all of these at this time of year; photos and further details here:

http://leafmines.co.uk/html/Plants/alnus.htm

This little chap jumped out at me as I cleared some dead Fleabane in my Hendy garden. 15/09. A Frosted Orange I believe!?

Late again.

Just three FFY on Saturday 15th September at Cwmllwyd, in a total of 36 moths at the MV trap, with 15 species recorded. FFYs shown below:

 Lesser Yellow Underwing

 Green-brindled Crescent

 Anomalous, only seen here once before, plus one on the mountain, both in 2014.

Can anyone help with this wee chap? Grateful thanks if you can. Sorry to say that it flew before I could measure it: 8-10mm, I should think.

Several hundred juvenile swallows on the move here today - hope to see them again next year.

Damp but fruitful at Pwll

At the last moment yesterday evening (16/9) I decided to put out the two garden traps. It was supposed to be dry last night but it seemingly drizzled for some hours, as the traps were sodden this morning. However, the rain had stopped by `inspection time` which made it fine by me.
There was actually a fair mix of moths, with plural numbers of FFY black rustics, large wainscots and a mixed supporting cast.
The only migrant were several silver y`s. It appears that a delicate turned up for a lucky recorder last night in Ceredigion.

My highlights were two l-album wainscots and the wetland crambid Calamotropha paludella.

                     Above: l-album wainscots, a fairly regular species at my garden traps.

           Above: Calamotrpha paludella, also recorded on multiple occasions over the years.

Above: I`m getting myself confused over this one - square spot rustic but very `stripey`- am I missing something or `barking up the wrong tree`?

Mild night in Bancyffordd

After using my 6W actinics several times recently with little success, I opted to put my MV out and brave the wasps. Seems that my removal of the aphid infested half fallen willow tree also cured the wasp problem. I didn't catch anything remarkable but my list of 30 moth species with two more to identify was satisfying enough.

New for the garden was a Pinion Streaked Snout.

Also new was Agonopterix heracliana. The forewing markings led me to believe this was A.ciliella, the hind wing cilia markings were not as definitive as I thought they would be.

I am really struggling to even get the genus for this moth so any assistance would be welcome. I have trapped several recently, 8mm long, and if each specimen is the same species then it appears to be quite variable, this one being the darkest and best condition.

My final micro came out of the cooler and was yet another Ypsolopha parenthesella, that's the third time I have been caught out by this moth thinking that I have something different !