Saturday 23 November 2013

All Over? Whetstone Leics. Update

Thought I ought to post what may well be the final update of the year, and just as well I did as I realised I'd forgotten to put my Ectoedemia occultella record into MapMate (see my last post) so my total was one out. Current total is 438, with the last addition being the first December Moths taken in the garden since 2001.


The five additions since my last proper update are:

Taxon Vernacular Date Added
434 Acleris rhombana Rhomboid Tortrix 07/10/2013
435 Colotois pennaria Feathered Thorn 08/10/2013
436 Agrochola circellaris Brick 08/10/2013
437 Ectoedemia occultella
26/10/2013
438 Poecilocampa populi December Moth 16/11/2013

Feathered Thorn

Brick

The 438 total includes 13 butterfly species and 425 moth species (of which 5 were larval only), and is a great upturn following the completely rubbish 2012 season. I usually track the adults for year-year comparisons as this reflects the overwhelming majority of my records, and the average for 2008 - 2011 was 367 species. My previous best year for garden moths was 2011 with 394 species (including 1 larval only). Beating my previous best total by 31 species is way over what I would have expected, and is more due to the great summer than anything else I reckon. I've picked up 22 new species for the garden over the year as well (4 macros and 18 micros), plus I added a retrospective tick taking the garden total up to 648 species.


It's not all been good though, the early season was a bit poor and I've not done as well as I usually do in September/October. I've checked my MapMate to see what the top 25 species are (in terms of total number of records) that I've missed this year. Of these there are perhaps one or two that could still turn up if we get an unseasonally mild spell (Chestnut or an early Pale Brindled Beauty). Certainly missing Large Nutmeg, Sallow and Oak-tree Pug is most unusual.

Code Taxon Vernacular Recs Last
2333 Apamea anceps Large Nutmeg 95 2012
2274 Xanthia icteritia Sallow 62 2012
1839 Eupithecia succenturiata Bordered Pug 43 2010
2273 Xanthia togata Pink-barred Sallow 41 2011
2064 Phragmatobia fuliginosa Ruby Tiger 34 2011
2364 Gortyna flavago Frosted Orange 34 2011
1395 Udea ferrugalis Rusty-dot Pearl 32 2011
1853 Eupithecia dodoneata Oak-tree Pug 30 2012
792 Mirificarma mulinella
26 2011
450 Scythropia crataegella Hawthorn Moth 26 2011
1747 Anticlea derivata Streamer 25 2012
1183 Epiblema foenella
23 2010
1169 Gypsonoma dealbana
18 2012
2164 Hecatera bicolorata Broad-barred White 16 2010
1333 Scoparia pyralella
16 2012
2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 16 2012
706 Agonopterix nervosa
16 2011
1236 Pammene fasciana
15 2012
1037 Acleris holmiana
15 2008
1926 Phigalia pilosaria Pale Brindled Beauty 14 2012
2342 Mesoligia literosa Rosy Minor 14 2008
2003 Notodonta ziczac Pebble Prominent 13 2011
1113 Eudemis profundana
13 2011
2271 Xanthia citrago Orange Sallow 13 2011
229 Monopis obviella
11 2006

The only other species on my garden list that I could realistically hope for now are Scarce Umber and maybe Mottled Umber - the latter having only appeared once before. A garden first Northern Winter Moth is an outside possibility I guess.