The figures are on the face of it quite disturbing. There is no doubt that macro moth numbers are well down in the last two years but we have had two extremely poor summers in a row which must have affected numbers. Is it also possible that the poor weather in the last two years has affected the number of times the trap was put out whilst the exceptional migrants that were being caught in 2005 and 2006 increased the amount of trapping.
In 2007 I did not see 20 different species that I had seen in the previous four years at this address however only 3 of these were not seen again in 2008. These were Vestal, Hummingbird Hawk Moth and Garden Tiger. This year there have been 6 species that I have not seen having recorded them in the previous 5 years. These are Plain Golden Y, Bordered Beauty, Brown Silver Lines, Large Wainscot, Satellite and Spruce Carpet.
My yearly figures are as follows:
2003 16777 individuals from 120 trappings
2004 16702 from 142
2005 15790 from 141
2006 I've mislaid the information!
2007 8682 from 105
2008 12470 from 116