Sharing the results from my latest Moth Trap Session. I have written posts about setting up a moth trap and on collecting the results if you want some more background info on how and why I use a Moth Trap
Moths can be found all year round, but are most abundant from Late Spring through to Early Autumn (ie May to September). Some species are active through the long dark Winter, but they require good weather conditions and a decent location. As I don't live near woodland, I don't get many here at all. This is why I have waited until March to set my trap up again.
Lets get it all out. Here you can see the egg trays on the left, the black pieces are the box and the white thing is the electrics and light fitting.
First I give everything a quick wipe down to get rid of the dust from storage, and then I can start assembling it. I start with making the box shape by slotting the black panels together
Then I add the bits of egg carton in the bottom of the box. These are used to provide cover, so the moths will fly in and then hide underneath the bits of cardboard.
Then I add the top of the box, and add the funnel shape. The shape of the opening is designed to make it easy for moths to fly into, and harder to fly out again.
Connecting the light bulb to the electrical components, this will then go on top of those white supports...
Ta-da! One finished Moth trap.
I take it outside and plug it in to make sure it still works (I should have done this first to be fair lol), and then I turn it off and wait for later when the sun has set.
I have placed it here near the house just to make it easier to check this evening. In the summer months I would move it further down the garden as it will be a lot busier. You also may have noticed a white sheet in those first pictures. Again, its not really worth using at this time of year
The last thing to do was set up a new spreadsheet ready to record the moths I see this year.... I wondered what the first species will be?
Two hours later, darkness has fallen, my first moth recording session of 2022 is underway...
Date: 12th March 2022
Weather:
It has been sunny and dry today and with highs of 12C, reasonably warm for the time of year. The wind is a bit stronger than I would like, but the direction (coming up from the South) is always good. Basically, the weather is as good as I could hope for for the time of year
Results: 1 moth of 1 species
Er yeah, just 1 moth caught tonight. Usually I would insert a table at this point detailing everything I have seen... seems a bit pointless this time.
Summary of Results:
So the first moth to be recorded in 2022 is..... Agonopterix heracliana agg. Not very exciting to be perfectly honest, but every record counts, and it is better than not finding anything.
Technically there was a 2nd little moth, but it flew away before I could see what was. In any case it was a similar size to this one, so it was very likely to be the same species. But as I couldn't ID it, it will stay as unrecorded.
That was it! I checked the trap every hour and couldn't see any more, and by the time midnight arrived the wind had picked up considerably, so I gave up and turned it all off.
Bonus pictures for this week:
Black Slug - Arion ater agg
Other than a couple of midges, the only non-moth species I saw was some slugs
I know, I know, scrapping the barrel now!
I did at least get an interesting picture of an uninteresting slug:
Black Slug - Arion ater agg
Does he think he's a flipping ninja or something? What on earth is going on?
who knows...
Anyway that concludes this rather uneventful report. It was good to dig the trap out, and I'm glad I actually saw a moth tonight, but next time I hope can I have some more interesting stuff too talk about
So stay tuned for Moth Trap stuff... at some point soon... :-)
Notes on Pictures: Since I started moth trapping 4 years ago, I have been slowly building up collection of Library Images. The idea being that once I have taken a picture of a particular species of Moth, I don't need another picture of the same species a year later. It’s a waste of time and energy. I only take pictures of new species, or of moths that are difficult to ID, so I can get the records verified.
While in my care, all individuals are looked after, and after Photographs have been taken, they are all released safely outside.
All names confirmed and checked via Wikispieces
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