Having just taken delivery of a 15W Actinic light trap I am now running this alongside my 160W MV light trap one night in the back garden and then on its own the next night in the front garden. Different locations, different mixes of light and different species being caught.
Last night started off slow but when I retired at 0100h, the back garden was humming with moths, beetles and flies. I left just after the big boys decided to wade in - two Privet Hawkmoths - not you don't want to get hit by one of these mothers when they are flashing around!
Over 250 individuals of over 50 species caught over night.
Male Drinker at Actinic light
White Satin at Actinic light.
You can even see the 'satin' sheen on the wings. Interesting, I caught this species on two different nights in different locations. Both times the moth sat within a few feet of the light rather than in or on the trap itself. This happens quite a lot, and a search of an area up to 5m around the trap will find moths roosting up on walls, fences etc. Finding them in vegetation is a bit more problematic.
Male Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing at Actinic light
Female Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing at Actinic light
Female Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Ruby Tiger at Actinic light
Ruby Tiger at Actinic light - starting to warm up
Shark at Actinic light
Brown China Mark at MV light
Dingy Footman at MV light
Clouded Border at MV light
Lesser Yellow Underwing at MV light
What's this?
The thing with mothing is that you get used to pawing over pages and pages of images trying to match some moths up to the books. Sometimes you give up in heated frustration. Other times you persevere, especially when you first ID your moth as something slightly out of the ordinary. I originally IDed this moth as a Grass Rivulet (not recoded in VC31 since 1998). I checked and checked. Blew up the image onscreen and have now decided it is simply a worn and faded Small Rivulet 0 a much more common and expected species!
Bird Cherry Ermine at MV light
Small Dusty Wave at MV light
Wormwood Pug at MV light. A common species but only new for the garden and catching them most nights now.
Elephant Hawkmoth at Actinic light
All images | Nikon Coolpix 995 | © Steve Dudley
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