Looks like the glory days may be over for a while! Actinic in the garden last night and just 14 species. A lot cooler with winds now northerly - didn't help that it was mostly clear with a near full moon. In fact 4 of my 16 egg trays were without a moth, which was reminiscent of early season. All is not lost however, as I still have one new species for the garden list: Yellow-barred Brindle. Although fairly common, I must have missed this at first generation (usually out in May). This again goes to show that I must be under-sampling and could take a couple of seasons to get all of the more common and widespread species.
So far this year I have 166 macro species for the garden and I'd say that 200 in the first year was a good effort. There are about 220 common/frequent and widespread species that you should catch in the first year or two with regular sampling. In six years at a former house in Somerset (at Stoke sub Hamdon) I recorded 330 macro's – with 237 species in Year 1 (1997). Year 2 added just 35 new species; Year 3, 23; Year 4, 15; Year 5, 9; and Year 6, 11. So as you might expect, it becomes more difficult to add new species year on year; but they do turn up all the same!
Full trap list (Actinic 40W, ST5715, VC9, Dorset):
- 1304 Agriphila straminella 2
- 1305 Agriphila tristella 3
- 1682 Blood-vein Timandra comae 1
- 1738 Common Carpet Epirrhoe alternata 1
- 1752 Purple Bar Cosmorhoe ocellata 1
- 1883 Yellow-barred Brindle Acasis viretata 1
- 1906 Brimstone Moth Opisthograptis luteolata 1
- 1937 Willow Beauty Peribatodes rhomboidaria 2
- 2102 Flame Shoulder Ochropleura plecta 3
- 2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes 1
- 2111 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing Noctua janthe 1
- 2126 Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum 13
- 2199 Common Wainscot Mythimna pallens 4
- 2343x Common Rustic agg. Mesapamea secalis agg. 2
36 moths of 14 species.