A warm night in my garden (min. 11˚C) but increasingly wet and windy after midnight. No moths!

I hope everyone has had a merry christmas, I had an early present on christmas eve, when I discovered 2 Heralds hibernating in a tarp. that I brought out of one of our outbuildings. Unfortunately I had 'woken' them and had to put them in the fridge to calm them down and prevent them wasting energy. Once they were settled, I took some photos and put them back where they were. They are stunning moths, I've only ever seen one before, in July when it was a bit past its best! A Mottled Umber also came to a lighted window on the 19th.

After a series of blanks with the Robinson trap I put the 40w actiniic out for a couple of nights. Two moths - a Plume which is either Amblyptilia acanthadactyla or more likely A. punctidactyla but it will need closer inspection to be sure. The other was a Red-green Carpet.

Well, I tried, but the moths had heard the forecast, and wisely stayed at home, so nowt in t' traps.

However, there were two early-evening visitors on the kitchen window, 1 Winter Moth and 1 Agonopterix heracliana, but even they didn't come back later when the Xmas lights were switched on.

I have a feeling that the traps will have to stay in dry-storage until the New Year at this rate.

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Nice to have friends in exotic places, Sue !!  I doubt if those big'uns could get into my traps without getting stuck, which is probably just as well, as I wouldn't want to damage them getting them out. Gorgeous, aren't they ?

Happy Xmas to all.

Nothing doing in Butleigh but a mate in Singapore sent me this- turned up on his balcony.

Happy Christmas everybody

This morning I found an example of 892 Mompha subbistrigella in the bedroom; this website lists it as Occasional and Very Local in VC5 & 6 so a nice Christmas present. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody.

892 Mompha subbistrigella.

NORTON SUB HAMDON
I trapped last night for the first time in two weeks. 3 Winter Moths and a December Moth were joined by a Satellite and I was very pleased to find only my 4th ever Oak Nycteoline. This is easily the most typically marked I have ever recorded which made identification easy.
On the shortest day of the year it was a pleasant surprise to see a Peacock basking in the sunshine in my garden.

When I arrived back from Kenya on 21st November accompanied by Bob Heckford and Stella Beavan we had to wait a few minutes while the taxi diverted around floods. In that time Bob spotted on the wall two winter moths and between them a fresh Acleris umbrana, the first I had seen alive.

Someone has added a page (not a blog) to the website - all it says is 'Acleris umbrana at Bristol airport'.

Please could the author give details on this 'latest sightings' page? If not a member and so unable to use this page please could they email details to me so that I can put them up?

Many thanks.

Greetings from Holford where last night i trapped 14 December moths! The 2 from the previous night were still where i had placed them My FFY was actually the night of 12th November. Wishing my fellow mothers a Very Happy Christmas from Pam Campbell

My first trapping since 22nd. November produced 5 December Moths, including 1 female, and 1 Mottled Umber, both species FFY (not surprisingly)

May I wish all readers a Merry Xmas & a somewhat less soggy New Year

After a moth-free garden moth survey night on Friday last night produced a solitary December moth.

I cant quite believe it....  Just to make me feel guilty about not putting the trap out we had two december moths and two red sword-grass's attracted to the outside lights!!! Not so red as previous ones we've had but you cant really mistake them for anything else!

I have loads of larvae of this species overwintering in teasel heads in my garage at the moment, taken from the verge of the A37 near Lytes Cary - it seemed like most of the seed-heads were populated by a larva except, curiously, for the largest and most central of them.

Hi Peter,

I only work in Bath so never get to trap there, but it is surprising what is there to be found even just looking in daylight hours.  Today I came across a couple of mines of Phyllonorycter kleemanella on an Italian alder planted across the road from the footbridge leading to the railway station - a somewhat unlikely location.  A few years back I found Hornet Moth cocoons in planted poplars on the river bank a few hundred yards downstream. 

I find Scarlet Tiger larvae most years at the top of Widcombe Hill, along the canal around Claverton, and in abundance at Combe Hay (though I have never seen the adult locally) and there is a strong population of Grass Rivulet on the golf course, where the rough is managed as hay meadow and there is an abundance of yellow-rattle.

Not many entries from this end of Somerset so although nothing came to my MV trap, I got several moths to the light outside my front door. A number of Winter Moths, a December Moth and this Mottled Umber. No-one else seems to have reported one this year and it's the first one I have seen.

Just 4 December moths here, and all lonely males....

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe - Min Temp 1 degree

The first quantity of moths for weeks! Fourteen December Moths including one pair in cop.

My unknown pupa (see 2nd December) emerged last evening - just a Silver Y! At least I can name it.

A solitary male Winter Moth on the kitchen window last night, the first since the first week of January, so not quite a FFY. Hopefully if the forecast isn't too dire, I'll try some trapping tonight, and see what's around (if anything).

This Scarce Umber was a new moth for my garden in Taunton, at actinic light on Friday night. The species was very rarely recorded in Somerset until David Evans found it to be widespread on the Blackdowns with his actinic traps, and also present on the Poldens and in the Brue Valley. It is probably throughout the county in more or less wooded country, thick hedges etc. though it seems to shun MV light.

Whitefield, Wiveliscombe

After several nights when I did not think it worth putting the trap out I did on Friday for GMS and, as I expected got nothing in the trap. Outside there was one Tortrix a first for our garden Acleris ferrugana/notana.

Winter GMS - couldn't trap on Friday night but put the trap out last night. T min was 1˚C but no moths. I'll trap again tonight as it has just started to drizzle.

I gathered some Corncockle seed capsules from my allotment in Curry Rivel today and found a Noctuid pupa protruding from one of them. I have a feeling that it may be a Plusiid but I'll have to wait and see.
Unknown Noctuid pupa in Corncockle seed capsule