Evergestis limbata - caught on July 7th

Evergestis limbata

Athough the first was caught as recently as 1993 it has become established. When I first caught one it seemed like a major rarity, now they are regularly being caught by mothers in East Kent.

Garden Tiger - caught on the 25th July

Garden Tiger (Arctia caja)

This was caught in my garden at St Margaret's. on July 25th. Love these, they used to be much more common when I was a kid, but then so did horse and carts!

Scarce Chocolate-tip - caught on July 26th

Scarce Chocolate-tip (Clostera anachoreta)

This was caught in my garden at St Margaret's. on July 26th. Sean Clancy reckon's that it is probably a migrant. A Red Data Book species in the British Isles, being restricted to the shingle beaches at Dungeness, Kent. It is also an occasional migrant, as adults are sometimes encountered elsewhere in the south. There were two caught in the Dungeness area on the 25th July.

Paddock Wood, 25th July 2009

Webb's Wainscot (male), a Nationally Scarce B species found locally in Southern Britain mostly near the coasts so nice to get one in the garden in West Kent.

Lesser Treble-bar, common in the South.

Coxcomb Prominent, common throughout Britain.

Agapetae and Marbled Beauty

Marbled Beauty, this photo doesn't quite do it justice, a small moth being only c20-25mm in length. Photo taken 22 July 2009 in Paddock Wood.

There are two species of the micro Agapeta in the UK, top is A. zoegana which is described as local and accordingly just one was present in the trap. Above is A. hamana, the photo is over-exposed so again isn't truly representative, this moth can be seen in good numbers whilst walking through long grass or rough ground. Both photos were taken at Sandwich on 20th July 2009.

Sandwich 18th July

Yellow-tail, frequent throughout most of Southern Britain becoming more local in the North.

Yellow Shell, common and often seen in the daytime.

Wormwood Pug, a rather worn individual.

Pebble Prominent, common but an attractive moth.

Smoky Wainscot, present in large numbers along the ancient highway and probably the commonest moth in the trap.

Six-spot Burnet, common and present in good numbers at Sandwich.

Saltern Ear, another local moth found in suitable habitat around the coasts of England and Wales, from the Humber to Morecambe Bay.

Reed Dagger, a Nationally Scarce B moth found predominantly in East Anglia but at a few other sites in the South-east. The pick of the catch.

Garden Tiger, common but a nice moth to show to the kids.

Dusky Sallow, common in the south of England especially on calcareous soils or shingle.

Drinker, my six year old son called this one the sub-marine moth!

Another view of a Drinker.

Many thanks to the staff of Sandwich Bay Bird Obervatory.

Royal Mantle (Catarhoe cuculata)

A moth from 3 years ago. This Royal Mantle was caught at St Margaret's at Cliffe on 11/7/2009.

Royal Mantle (Catarhoe cuculata)

Spurge Hawkmoth

This beautiful Spurge Hawkmoth was a surprise in my trap on June 21st 2007. At the time I caught it Sean Clancy supplied me with this summary of its status in Kent:

"- there were singles at Dungeness in 1993 & 97, and one at Smeeth in 1981. Otherwise Chalmers-Hunt listed five records he regarded as reliable, most of single larvae, the most recent in 1937."

Blast from the past

Three goodies from three years ago when we were renting a house just off Commercial Road in the middle of Paddock Wood with a garden that really was about the size of a pocket handkerchief.

Above is a Waved Black which is a Nationally Scarce B resident and suspected immigrant with the home counties accounting for the majority of records.

The summer of 2006 was a good year for migrant moths and even such a tiny garden in the west of Kent attracted good numbers of the micros Diamond-back Moth and Rush Veneer as well as the more regular migrant the Silver Y. This is what I initially though this was but on closer inspection it proved to be the immigrant Ni Moth which are not recorded every year in the UK but do occasionally appear in numbers, such as 2006.

Maple Prominent, a local resident which was classified as Nationally Scarce but has expanded it's range northwards and westwards but still found predominently in the south and south-east of England.

All moths were trapped on the 30th July 2006.

Epiblema foenella

This Epiblema foenella was in the Knockholt trap yesterday morning, but I only just got round to identifying it as I don't usually bother with micro's, but this one was just so striking.

Knockholt 3rd July Catch

July Highflyer

Smoky Wainscot

Peach Blossom

Smoky Wainscot

Treble Brown Spot


Common Wainscot

V Pug

Dark Arches

Common White Wave

Treble Brown Spot and Small Magpie

A Treble Brown Spot was in my Knockholt house a few days ago. A localised species according to Waring and Lewington. Also a smart Small Magpie was in the garden shed today! Hopefully I'll have the trap out tonight.

Elephant and Small Elephant Hawkmoths.

Hawk Moths are the moths that get noticed most by the non-obsessed, and I think that these two show why.

On the right is a nice fresh Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila elpenor). The English name is derived from the caterpillar's suposed resemblance to an elephant's trunk. The natural food plant of the larvae is Rosebay Willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium), but also other plants as well, including Bedstraw (Galium). For some reason in gardens they are very partial to fuschia bushes.

On the left is the slightly smaller, Small Elephant Hawkmoth (D. elpenor). It is brightly coloured but more locally distributed than its larger relative, although it occurs widely in Britain. It prefers chalky districts, so it is quite at home in St Margaret's. The larvae, are similar to those of the Elephant Hawkmoth feed mostly on bedstraw (Galium). I don't know if it too is fond of Fuschias.
These were photographed in my Garden in St Margaret's at Cliffe on June 1st, having been caught overnight.

Rannoch Looper

I caught this Geometer on June 9th and took a while to realise it was a Rannoch Looper ( Itame brunneata), this seems to be the moth of the year so far, with a lot of records in Kent.

Normally Rannoch Loopers are restricted to the mature woodland areas of central Scotland, but they are also scarce migrants from the continent and they have been a lot of records this year, mostly from Coastal Counties but some further inland. This is probably a male as the cross lines are quite indistinct. Down the road at Kingsdown Nigel Jarman caught five on the 9th June, and I think has had a couple since.

Getting up to date there have been a few Barred Straws (Eulithis pyraliata) in the traps during the last couple of days. This nice pristine speciman was caught on June 30th.

Both moths were caught in my garden at St Margaret's at Cliffe.

Lime Hawk-moth

This Lime Hawkmoth was found on a pavement in Dartford by Niki Lawson as she walked to work. She picked it up and moved it to safety but not before capturing this shot.
Thanks to Andy Lawson for supply me with this image.