Moth Trap - 20th April 2025 (turning cold, still 2 new species recorded for the year)

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

Date: 20th April 2025

Weather:

Its only been a week since my last moth recording session, and to be honest the weather forecast isn't brilliant, but it is the Easter Holidays here, and I have some time free this evening, so may be its worth a shot?

It has been warm/dry enough to cut the grass again, and as usual I kept my eye out to see if there were any interesting insects. Along with several Dock Bugs (Coreus marginatus), which are quite often seen here, there was a different looking bug seen: Deraeocoris ruber, which I've only recorded in the garden once before:

Mirid Bug Deraeocoris ruber

The Forget-me-nots, a small and delicte Spring flower, is now flowering:

Forget-me-not - Myosotis sylvatica

And of course there were also a couple of Butterflies flitting about in the sunny spells

My phone pics were rubbish, and my camera was upstairs somewhere, so I've picked out a couple of shots form my species library as an example of what I saw! Note To Self - make sure my camera is closer to hand next time!

Orange-tip - Anthocharis cardamines

Speckled Wood - Pararge aegeria

The weather isn't awful by the way... highs of 14C, cloudy and sunny intervals. We did have some rain 2/3 days ago which will help too, but it is gonna be dry tonight. The only issue will be that wind. Slightly more breezy than I would like... and to be honest the moths are only little, and they don't like being blown around.

The wind will decrease by 8pm/9pm though, so what the hell, I'll give it a go tonight... there has been plenty of life buzzing round the garden this afternoon, so hopefully that will translate in to more moths seen tonight

Moth trap set up and ready to go

Lights on, pots at the ready... Here. We. Go!

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Results: 3 moths of 2 species

Summary of Results:

Not gonna waste time trying to tell a full story/account of the evening... it was warm until the sun went down, and then it got cold vey quickly. The wind wasn't actually as bad as I expected, but it still felt very cold out there

The trap went on before dusk, I checked it at 9:45pm, 11:30pm and 00:30am. I had nothing on the first 2 checks, and on the 3rd and final check before I brough the trap inside, I found 3 moths:

On the left is a Hebrew Character, on the right is a Shuttle-shaped Dart, and then the one in middle was a 2nd Shuttle-shaped Dart

Both species are very similar. They are both in the Noctuidae family, early spring species, very common, and colour-wise both are fairly drab with grey/brown markings.

I've added some better pictures taken from a previous session below

Hebrew Character - Orthosia gothica

Shuttle-shaped Dart - Agrotis puta

The only notable difference between the 2 species is the flight times. The Hebrew Character can be seen from late March to early May, whereas the Shuttle-shaped Dart, can be seen from April until September (and I expect to see good numbers of this species in most of the sessions this year)

So, yet again, its been chilly, and thats all part of the time of year. It will pick up at some point soon though.

So far this year, with 3 sessions, I have recorded 7 different species, which doesn't actually sound that bad when I look at it that way!

My partner is running a moth trap session over at her university this week (on Wednesday the 23rd). I have suggested I might join in and run my trap at the same time, to compare results between the different locations, so there may be a rare midweek trapping session to look forward too!

What will happen next time? Will it be busy and chaotic? Will it be quieter? Will I find something new to record?

Well, once again, there is only one way to find out!

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