Moth Night: 26 September 2019 to 28 September 2019

Theme

The theme of this year’s event was monitoring the recent spread of the spectacular Clifden Nonpareil Catocala fraxini, which is re-colonising the UK. A total of 41 examples were recorded from 32 sites in Bedfordshire, the Channel Islands, Dorset, Devon, Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Sussex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, including counts of nine from Wolford Wood and four from Oversley Wood in Warwickshire, and two from Shirrell Heath in Hampshire.

Prizes

The prize for the most notable record of a Clifden Nonpareil was won by Tim Arnold. His record of the species from Northamptonshire was one of several recorded in the county in 2019 but prior to 2019 there had been only one record around the turn of the twentieth century (Mark Hammond, pers. comm.). Tim’s moth was caught on a public event in which he was a participant and it became the star of the event! Tim won a 40W actinic moth-trap kindly donated by Watkins and Doncaster.

The best migrant moth record, under the rules of submission, was the Dark Mottled Willow Spodoptera cilium caught by Ralph Parks on St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly. There were just over 30 British records of this species at the time. A £50 credit voucher was awarded by Atropos Books.

The prize for the best record of a resident species went to Margaret Currie for her record of Pale Pinion Lithophane socia in her garden at Culbokie, East Ross. The first record of this species for VC106 came in 2018, representing a significant northwards expansion of range and Margaret’s record adds further to the picture of recent colonisation (one of three records in 2019; M. Eagleson, pers. comm.). Margaret received a prize from the Field Studies Council, consisting of a butterfly/moth field course of her choice.

Random drawn prizes for public events organisers went to Suzanne Rowe, Douglas Boyes, Phil Knot, George Tordoff and Thomas Oliver, each of whom received a copy of Field Guide to Moths of Great Britain and Ireland donated by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Although not actual prize winners, deserving of mention are the 15 Fisher’s Estuarine Moth Gortyna borelii caught on two nights each, at Actinic light, Whitstable, Kent (A. Taylor). This is one of the few UK moth species given full legal protection and the moths were caught under licence.

Finally, if there had been a prize for animal participants then Milo the cat who brought a Convolvulus Hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli back to her owner in Hampshire would have won it. It was identified from a photo sent to the enquiries email address.

Key Statistics

	26th	27th	28th	Totals
Records received:	2,098	2,279	1,376	5,753
Minimum total moth count:	9,658	10,911	6,863	27,432
No. of recorded sites:	171	191	118	*343
No. of recorded vice-counties:	62	63	59	*82
No. of Macro-moth species:	129	143	130	*180
No. of Micro-moth species:	90	72	71	*126
Species total:	219	215	201	*306

*Aggregate over the 3 nights

 

Most Abundant Macros (Minimum Counts)

Lunar Underwing Omphaloscelis lunosa	6,686 from 334 sites
Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba	4,392 from 345 sites
Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum	4,093 from 312 sites
Square-spot Rustic Xestia xanthographa	1,033 from 187 sites
Black Rustic Aporophyla nigra	985 from 20 sites
Beaded Chestnut Agrochola lychnidis	831 from 166 sites
Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes	771 from 225 sites
Silver Y Autographa gamma	262 from 135 sites
Autumnal Rustic Eugnorisma glariosa	262 from 42 sites
Common Marbled Carpet Dysstroma truncata	246 from 119 sites

Immigrants

The following species are traditionally regarded as immigrants, though local breeding is possible for a proportion of records for some species. This list also includes some species considered resident in the Channel Islands (VC113).

 

Silver Y Autographa gamma	262 from 135 sites
Delicate Mythimna vitellina	195 from 50 sites
Diamond-back Moth Plutella xylostella	174 from 82 sites
Rusty-dot Pearl Udea ferrugalis	148 from 32 sites
White-point Mythimna albipuncta	109 from 42 sites
Rush Veneer Nomophila noctuella	39 from 28 sites
Convolvulus Hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli	39 from 18 sites
Clancy’s Rustic Caradrina kadenii	38 from 20 sites
Scarce Bordered Straw Helicoverpa armigera	33 from 27 sites
Dark Sword-grass Agrotis ipsilon	14 from 12 sites
Pearly Underwing Peridroma saucia	13 from 9 sites
Four-spotted Footman Lithosia quadra	9 from 6 sites
Palpita vitrealis	9 from 5 sites
White-speck Mythimna unipuncta	9 from 1 site
Vestal Rhodometra sacraria	6 from 6 sites
Humming-bird Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum	5 from 5 sites
Dewick’s Plusia Macdunnoughia confusa	4 from 4 sites
Radford’s Flame Shoulder Ochropleura leucogaster	3 from 3 sites
Bordered Straw Heliothis peltigera	2 from 2 sites
Blair's Mocha Cyclophora puppillaria	1 from 1 site
Plumed Fan-foot Pechipogo plumigeralis	1 from 1 site
Golden Twin-spot Chrysodeixis chalcites	1 from 1 site
Small Mottled Willow Spodoptera exigua	1 from 1 site
Dark Mottled Willow Spodoptera cilium	1 from 1 site
Cosmopolitan Leucania loreyi	1 from 1 site

 

Highest Counts of a Single Species from One Site (one entry per species)

Setaceous Hebrew Character Xestia c-nigrum	346 from Bawdsey Hall, East Suffolk
Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba	205 from Bawdsey Hall, East Suffolk
Lunar Underwing Omphaloscelis lunosa	180 from Sherington House, Buckinghamshire
Black Rustic Aporophyla nigra	132 from Great Ellingham, West Norfolk
Beaded Chestnut Agrochola lychnidis	92 from Hutton Conyers, North-west Yorkshire
Autumnal Rustic Eugnorisma glareosa	80 from Canvey Wick NR, South Essex
Box-tree Moth Cydalima perspectalis	65 from Barnehurst, West Kent
Pink-barred Sallow Xanthia togata	61 from Moniaive, Dumfriesshire
Square-spot Rustic Xanthia xanthographa	60 from Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory, East Kent
Rosy Rustic Hydraecia micacea	37 from Pierowall, Orkney Islands

Vice-county Table

This table presents summary information for each vice-county that returned data. Some information was returned pertaining to the number of guests attending organised events; public event attendance figures are in brackets where known; a question mark denotes no attendance figure supplied. The ‘Species Total’ column shows the total number of species recorded (bold) and the breakdown of first macro- and then micro-moth species. The number of recorders is the minimum count as multiple recorders are listed for some sites.

Vice-county		Sites	Recorders (Guests)	Records Totals	Species Total macro/micro
1	West Cornwall	8	8	311	70	47/23
2	East Cornwall	4	4	47	28	21/7
3	South Devon	18	13	259	69	48/21
5	South Somerset	1	1	24	24	15/9
6	North Somerset	7	6	76	41	33/8
7	North Wiltshire	1	1	5	5	5/0
8	South Wiltshire	2	2	38	27	23/4
9	Dorset	13	9	233	62	48/14
10	Isle of Wight	1	1	1	1	1/0
11	South Hampshire	12	10 (17)	149	57	42/15
12	North Hampshire	6	6	74	39	29/10
13	West Sussex	2	2	71	30	18/12
14	East Sussex	5	4	130	52	37/15
15	East Kent	13	13 (15)	402	96	72/24
16	West Kent	5	2	62	37	25/12
17	Surrey	11	10 (31)	128	45	34/11
18	South Essex	4	2	153	75	51/24
19	North Essex	5	4 (8)	133	54	43/11
20	Hertfordshire	1	1	8	6	6/0
22	Berkshire	6	6 (29)	76	43	33/10
23	Oxfordshire	6	4 (1)	73	34	28/6
24	Buckinghamshire	3	4 (12)	40	25	20/5
25	East Suffolk	17	16 (22)	484	105	71/34
26	West Suffolk	3	2	33	19	17/2
27	East Norfolk	11	10	271	67	51/16
28	West Norfolk	3	3	71	36	28/8
29	Cambridgeshire	5	4	62	25	23/2
31	Huntingdonshire	1	1	15	11	9/2
32	Northamptonshire	3	3 (15)	52	36	29/7
33	East Gloucestershire	5	3	82	34	26/8
36	Herefordshire	1	1	1	1	1/0
37	Worcestershire	4	7 (10)	102	50	34/16
38	Warwickshire	12	6 (25)	179	66	40/26
39	Staffordshire	3	3	45	23	17/6
40	Shropshire	2	3 (10)	13	11	10/1
41	Glamorgan	3	4 (15)	49	25	18/7
42	Breconshire	7	9 (5)	39	28	24/4
43	Radnorshire	2	2	21	17	15/2
44	Carmarthenshire (Caerfyrddyn)	1	1	6	6	5/1
45	Pembrokeshire	1	2	4	4	4/0
46	Cardiganshire (Ceredigion)	1	1	8	8	8/0
47	Montgomeryshire	1	1	32	20	16/4
49	Caernarvonshire (Caernarfon)	2	2	19	14	12/2
53	South Lincolnshire	1	1	2	2	2/0
54	North Lincolnshire	1	1	41	23	16/7
55	Leicestershire (with Rutland)	4	4	39	20	15/5
56	Nottinghamshire	4	5 (1)	88	35	30/5
57	Derbyshire	2	2 (3)	31	28	23/5
58	Cheshire	7	7	103	46	32/14
59	South Lancashire	9	7 (2)	82	33	28/5
60	West Lancashire	5	7 (10)	77	38	26/12
61	South-east Yorkshire	11	10 (7)	187	48	34/14
62	North-east Yorkshire	8	6 (18)	102	39	31/8
63	South-west Yorkshire	7	5	62	26	21/5
64	Mid-west Yorkshire	9	9 (5)	53	33	25/8
65	North-west Yorkshire	3	4	94	42	33/9
72	Dumfriesshire	3	3 (18)	47	31	27/4
78	Peeblesshire	1	1	5	5	5/0
79	Selkirkshire	2	2	10	9	9/0
80	Roxburghshire	1	1	5	5	5/0
81	Berwickshire	4	1	38	26	22/4
83	Midlothian (Edinburgh)	1	1	4	4	4/0
85	Fifeshire (with Kinross)	1	1	3	3	3/0
86	Stirlingshire	1	1	2	2	2/0
88	Mid Perthshire	4	3 (1)	32	22	18/4
90	Angus (Forfar)	2	2 (24)	17	17	13/4
91	Kincardineshire	2	2 (21)	64	46	36/10
92	South Aberdeenshire	2	2 (9)	10	10	10/0
93	North Aberdeenshire	2	2	23	22	17/5
95	Moray (Elgin)	1	1	6	6	6/0
103	Mid Ebudes	1	1	5	5	5/0
104	North Ebudes	2	2 (15)	13	12	11/1
106	East Ross	2	2	26	19	18/1
109	Caithness	4	4	97	28	22/6
110	Outer Hebrides	3	1	23	17	14/3
111	Orkney islands	2	2	29	16	11/5
113	Channel Islands	1	1	196	70	47/23
H5	East Cork	2	1	16	13	13/0
H34	East Donegal	2	1	11	9	9/0
H38	Down	2	2	27	25	23/2