Saturday 18 June 2011

Good Housekeeping, Vol 2

It rained last night and the forecast is for more. Not many people are complaining about that, especially down south, although spare a thought for June brides today. What a lottery our English weather is.

Anyway, I have been using the time to check out the number of different species which have come to my trap; and before that, those which I saw by other means, including a pretty unproductive but stickily enjoyable rum-and-treacling session with small cousins five or six years ago. The news is, that we have hit 200, including a dozen or so micros. I have been very conservative in my counting, not adding varieties or aberrations as extras, and I know for certain that half-a-dozen at least of small, boring or otherwise baffling moths have escaped this census.

Anyway, here they are, with the new ones since my first (and last) attempt at Good Housekeeping on 1st August 2009, when the tally was 158, in bold. I've included a couple of pictures of the other night's micromoths with lurid scale indicators such as my blurred thumb, to stop this post looking too boring.

Alder, Angle Shades, Angle-striped Sallow, Antler, Autumnal Rustic, Barred Red, Barred Yellow,Beautiful Golden Y, Black Rustic, Blackneck, Blair’s Shoulder Knot, Bloodvein, Bordered White, Bright-line Brown-eye, Brimstone, Brindled Green, Brown China Mark, Brown Silver-line, Buff Arches, Buff Ermine, Buff Footman, Buff Tip, Burnished Brass, Canary-shouldered Thorn, Centre-barred Sallow, Chestnut, Chimney Sweeper, Cinnabar, Clouded Border, Clouded-bordered Brindle (plus ab Combusta), Clouded Drab, Clouded Brindle, Clouded Silver, Common Carpet, Common Emerald, Common Footman, Common Marbled Carpet, Common Quaker, Common Rustic, Common Swift, Common Wainscot, Common Wave, Common White Wave, Common Yellow Underwing, Copper Underwing and/or Svensson’s C.U. (impossible to distinguish without expert help), Coxcomb Prominent, Cream Wave, Crescent, Dark Arches, Dark-barred

Twin-spot Carpet, Dark Brocade, Dark Dagger, Dark Marbled Carpet, Dark Spectacle, Dark Swordgrass, Dot, Dun-bar, Dusky Brocade, Dusky Thorn, Early Grey, Early Thorn, Elephant Hawk, Engrailed, Fan-foot, Feathered Thorn, Figure of 80, Flame, Flame Carpet, Flame Shoulder, Flounced Rustic, Foxglove Pug, Frosted Orange, Garden Carpet, Ghost, Gold Spangle, Gold Spot, Golden-rod Pug, Gothic, Green Arches, Green-brindled Crescent, Green Carpet, Green Pug, Green Silver Lines, Grey Arches, Grey Birch, Grey Dagger, Grey Scalloped Bar, Heart and Dart, Hebrew Character, Herald, Ingrailed Clay, Iron Prominent, July Highflyer, Knot Grass, Large Emerald, Large Yellow Underwing, Lead-coloured Drab, Lempke’s Gold Spot


Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Lesser Common Rustic, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Light Emerald, Lime Hawk including Var Brunnea, Lunar Underwing, Lunar Marbled Brown, Lychnis, Marbled Beauty, Marbled Minor, May Highflyer, Micros: Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix (Pandemis ceranasa) - shown above with a Poplar Hawk moth wing for scale - Bird-cherry Ermine, Brown Grey (Scoparia ambigualis), Catopria margaritella, Diurnia fagella, Dipleurina lacustrata, Emmelina monodactyla, Garden Rose Tortrix, Green Oak Roller (Tortrix viridiana), Mother of Pearl, Plume (Stenophilia sp.), Pyrausta aurata, Spindle Ermine, 20-plume, Ypsolopha Sequella, Middle-barred Minor, Miller, Mottled Beauty, Mottled Rustic, Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet, November moth, Oak Hooktip, Orange Swift, Orange Underwing, Pale Brindled Beauty, Pale Mottled Willow, Pale Pinion, Pale Prominent, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Pale Tussock (including dark variety), Peach Blossom, Pebble Hook Tip, Pebble Prominent, Peppered (including melanistic variety), Phoenix, Pink-barred Sallow, Plain Golden Y, Poplar Hawk, Purple Bar

Purple Thorn, Red Underwing, Red-green Carpet, Red-lined Quaker, Riband Wave, Rivulet, Rosy Rustic, Ruby Tiger, Rufous Minor, Sallow, Sallow Kitten, Satin Beauty, Satellite, Scalloped Hazel (including var nigra), Scalloped Hook-tip, Scalloped Oak, Scarce Silver Lines, Scorched Wing, September Thorn, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Shaded Broad-bar, Shoulder-striped Wainscot, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Silver Y, Single-dotted Wave, Slender Brindle, Small Angle Shades, Small Fanfoot, Small Fan-footed Wave, Small Magpie, Small Phoenix, Small Quaker, Smoky Wainscot, Snout, Spectacle, Spruce Carpet, Square-spot Rustic, Straw Dot, Streamer, Swallow Prominent, Swallowtailed, Treble Bar, True Lover’s Knot, Twin-spotted Quaker, V-pug, White Ermine, Willow Beauty, Winter moth, Yellow-line Quaker

Hooray! Great names, aren't they?

Finally, I have cracked Charlie's last clue (see posts below) to reveal Scoparia ambigualis or the Brown Grey moth. Like the others in his puzzle, it has been here before, so I should have recognised it. Here it is again, anyway, to conclude today's proceedings, shown for scale beside a Heart and Dart.

6 comments:

sarah meredith said...

Hi Martin - WOW, I am so impressed - alphabetized and everything! I wish I were someone who could create a poem from all these wonderful names - or a rap song. I have read the list twice now and will read it again and again. I have to say, though, that if I were a moth I would hate to be a "common". Love to you both. xxs

MartinWainwright said...

Hi there! Lovely to hear from you. Interestingly enough, the composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle is working on a piece called Requiem for a Moth which combines his music with the names of 66 species which are thought to have become extinct in the UK in the 20th century (when, to be cheerful, another 89 new ones were reckoned to have established themselves). Love to all from rainy old Yorkshire - no trapping at the mo... xM

MartinWainwright said...

Hi again S - sorry, it's only 8am and I'm a bit dozy. You may recall, I posted about Sir HB in April, including an exciting picture of him with my arm, when I interviewed him about the piece. It's on:

martinsmoths.blogspot.com/2011/04/musical-moths.html

I'll keep checking on when the piece is due to be performed but I don't think it'll be for a while as he's got lots of work.

xM (and P)

MartinWainwright said...

OMG! as young people in the UK say these days... My memory lapse is worse than ever. Not only do you know about Sir H, but you did a fab painting of him based on the photo in may post.

All should admire, on Sarah's excellent blog:

smalldailypaintings.blogspot.com/2011/04/portrait-study-martins-friend.html

Sorry S. I think I'll go an lie down...

Bennyboymothman said...

Hi Martin the moth next to the Heart & Dart is Dipleurina lacustrata and not Scoparia ambigualis
Sorry to be a smart ass!
Regards
Ben

airspeed42 said...

Hi Martin,

I'm new to moth watching, but fascinated nevertheless. Your blog is a wonderful find!

Can you advise me what would be my best method for attracting my local species? I've read about 'treacling' and wondered if a combination of Golden Syrup and cider would work? Also what weather conditions and times are best? So many questions...

I live in Somerset in a rural setting.

Best

Mike