Hi All,

I'm hoping to bring some copies of the new atlas - Moths of the Bristol Region - along to the AGM. This is in case anyone wants to buy a copy and would save on the postage.

Cheers,

Mike Bailey

Good evening everyone: I hope to see you all at the AGM on Thursday 4th December at Ruishton Village Hall. If you can't make it, please could you let myself or Mark know?

Provisonal agenda

• Members present
• Apologies
• Minutes of last meeting
• Matters arising
• Chairman's report
• Treasurer's report
• Secretary's report
• Recorders' report - macros and micros
• Election of officers
• Content for newsletter December 2008
• Any other business (to be notified to the Chairman before the meeting starts)

Break for refreshments
Post-meeting events
If anyone has any images which they would like to show please can you email them to me (john.bebbington@somersetmothgroup.org.uk) or bring them to the AGM on a flash drive or CD
Many thanks
John

What did poorly in my garden this year?

The 10 species with the largest falls in numbers of individuals compared to the 10 year average are Brimstone (-176), Uncertain (-198), Shuttle-shaped Dart (-255), Lunar Underwing (-283), Common Footman (-316), Setaceous Hebrew Character (-390), Square-spot Rustic (-411), Large Yellow Underwing (-419), Vine's Rustic (-435) and Heart and Dart (-1409).

Even so, these all still occurred in fair numbers. There is also a set of once regular species which showed large percentage falls in 2008. The worst are Dark Sword-grass (86), Marbled Green (86), March Moth (86), Common Wainscot (86), Centre-barred Sallow (86), Canary-shouldered Thorn (87), Lunar Marbled Brown (88), Turnip (90), Green Silver-lines (94) and Beaded Chestnut (95).

If you remove the two migrants there are another 71 species which fell by over 50%. Hopefully this is partly because the weather was poor for catching moths. Otherwise it's not looking great near the bottom of the food chain.

What did well in 2008? Compared to an average of the previous ten years, the five species of moth with most individuals in my garden were Green Carpet (+37), Dark Arches (+37), Dingy Footman (+37), Straw Dot (+65) and Jersey Tiger (+119). Apart from Dark Arches all of these basically weren't here in 1998 but are now quite well established.

The list of what did poorly is rather longer and perhaps best left for another day.

Very small numbers of moths now with just four last night despite reasonable weather. They included my first Mottled Umber of the year, only my fourth record in six years at this address. Recent catches have included 3 Cypress Carpets, a moth I only caught one of last year after having 10 in 2006. At the end of October I spent a week near Alicante. I was interested to see how numerous the migrants I've been missing in my garden were. However apart from a number of Vestals and a couple of Small Mottled Willows I hardly saw anything else. Suprisingly the most common butterfly was the Plains Tiger which was seen in good numbers in many places.

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

Better temperatures (10 to 11 degrees) this week-end produced a better quantity of moths including Red-Green Carpet 8, Feathered Thorn 9, one fresh Silver Y, while Spruce Carpet 3 continues to do well.

Just a reminder that the AGM will be held, as usual, at Ruishton Village Hall on Thursday 4th December, at 7.30 pm.  More details will be posted soon - make sure you have this date in your diary!

First December moth

I was surprised to see that the 'Moths of the Bristol Region' is now out.  I picked up a copy at the BENHS  Exhibition yesterday and must say I'm very impressed.

It is a well-produced hardback of some 526 pages and covers all species, both macro and micro.  There are some interesting introductory chapters followed by species accounts with maps and phenology for most species (excluding only the poorly recorded micros I believe).  Status is based on data from 1990 to 2006 and historic notes are provided.  The area covered is Bristol with adjacent parts of VC6 (North Somerset) and VC34 (West Gloucestershire).

The authors are to be congratulated - this is a welcome addition to our local knowledge.

Moths of the Bristol Region by Ray Barnett, Richard Andrews, Mike Bailey, Tim Corner, Rupert Higgins and John Martin.  BRERC, 2008.  ISBN 978-0-9545235-1-0.

I picked up my copy from Pemberley Books  for £29.95.

Like Peter I have had a couple of improved nights - a total of 19 macro species including firsts for the year of Feathered Thorn, Mottled Umber, Sprawler, Grey Shoulder-knot, Red- and Yellow-line Quaker. I'm still getting Lesser Yellow Underwing and Setaceous Hebrew Character - much later than in the last 2 years.

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

Last night was a warmer night here with a min temp of 8 degrees and there were 13 species in the trap including Dark Chestnut and Feathered Thorn both 2008 firsts for us. The last named reminds me of a Moth group meeting some years ago at Bishops Lydeard when there were dozens flying in the headlights as we drove up to the big house where the meeting was held.