New Moth Species (5 ) - Light Emerald

Another striking new species for me was the Light Emerald (Campaea margaritata). Two or three came to the trap. As it is a typical woodland species we benefit in getting such Moths by our proximity to the woodland and from the trees on site

New Moth Species (4) - Four-spotted Footman

I was going through photos of Moths I didn't take to be identified and found one that I had assumed was the same as the Common Footman that was formally id'd. I looked it up and found it to be a Four-spotted Footman (Lithosia quadra) - a male so it doesn't actually have any spots. This is much less common and widespread than the Common Footman so a pleasing catch. It is also a very elegant Moth (apart from the bald patch!)

New Moth Species (3)

Two more Moths from the trapping. The darker one is a new species for The Beeches list and is a Dot Moth (Melancra persicariae). The plaer one is a Riband Wave and that has been recorded by me previously.

New Moth Species (2)

Another one from last weeks trapping. Possibly the most elegant and definitely with the best coiffeur, I give you the Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria).

New Moth Species (1)

The most splendid, apart from the Poplar Hawkmoth (see below), I trapped was the Peppered Moth (Biston betularia).

Moths

I borrowed a Moth trap and did my first proper trapping a couple of nights ago. Lots of new species to add to the list. It would have been a lot more but having potted up loads of micromoths I released them all as I realised that I wasn't going to have enough pots or enough identification time to deal with the number of moths in and around the trap. I needed id help for most of the larger moths in any case which I got in the early afternoon (thanks Steph). I'll highlight a few of the new species in separate blogs and start here with the magnificent Poplar Hawkmoth.

Orchid final? total

I haven't seen any fresh Orchids to count in the last few days so this may be the final total for the year. However Broad-leaved Helleborines are down in number and I still have vague hopes that a few more might appear. This dry spell probably won't encourage them however. All in all it's been a reasonable year and the trend of increasing Orchid numbers year on year is maintained. The overall total is 810 Orcids which is a 5% increase on 2021. This is tiny compared to the 148% increase last year but there does seem to be a pattern of large increases followed by much smaller increases in numbers. In 2018 numbers rose 59% and in 2019 by 5% for example. The good news is the appearance of a Greater Butterfly Orchid for the first time. The downside this year has been the destruction of unprotected flowering Orchids by Deer which has reached unprecedented levels. However I have a plan to counteract this next year!