Mid-July 2018, I set a trap, a Robinson moth trap, constructed by my friend Rob. He’d had lots of success capturing, photographing and ultimately releasing hundreds of different species of moth when his children were young around 2006. We got quite a haul of moths on a trial run in his garden, including an enormous Poplar Hawk, Rustic, Brown-tail, Buff Ermine, Burnished Brass, and many others, here’s an open gallery of some of the moths we saw. It was seeing a Copper Underwing on our conservatory wall that triggered me to borrow the trap from Rob.
Another friend, erstwhile moth expert, Brian, named some Rob and I hadn’t put a name to and highlighted the taxonomic discrepancies in a couple to which we (I) had assigned an incorrect monicker or where there is ambiguity without dissection or additional knowledge, examination.
The first night with the trap in my back garden brought high diversity, but mostly very small moths and one or two special (to me as a novice moth lover) species: Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis), Rose-flounced Tabby (Endotricha flammealis), Yponomeuta sp., The Dun-bar (Cosmia trapezina), Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa), Cloaked Minor (Mesoligia furuncula)…