An Introduction to Moths & Moth Trapping at Drummuir - 18th & 19th September 2015

The event was jointly organised by Butterfly Conservation Highland Branch and Lynne Laing from the Moray Wildlife Watch section of SWT. During the early evening of the 18th fifteen folk attended the first part of the moth event. An introduction to moths was given and a description of how we would be looking for them and then a view of the various types to trap that had been set up along one of the footpaths within the Drummuir Castle Estate grounds.

We met again the following morning to see what had been caught with many of those who attended the previous evening coming back plus a few additional visitors, in total we had thirteen adults and eight children. The previous evening had started with ideal conditions being calm and mild with a reasonable amount of cloud cover but by midnight the cloud had dissipated and the evening became very cold with a temperature just a few degrees above zero. Nevertheless a very reasonable number of moths were trapped with some very colourful ones right from the outset. First out of the trap was a Canary-shouldered Thorn followed by a Blue-bordered Carpet and then a Pink-barred Sallow. All thoughts of moths just being uninteresting brown jobs were quickly dispelled. A worthwhile and interesting event which not only kept folk entertained but additionally added a reasonable number of late season species to the moth list for this relatively under-recorded 10km square. The full moth list is shown below the photos.

Mike Taylor

Blue-bordered Carpet                                                                                          Large Ear Moth

                    

Taxon	Species	Quantity
Agonopterix heracliana	Common Flat-body	1
Acleris sparsana	Ashy Button	1
Dioryctria abietella	Dark Pine Knot-horn	1
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla	Beautiful Plume	1
Xanthorhoe designata	Flame Carpet	1
Eulithis populata	Northern Spinach	1
Chloroclysta siterata	Red-green Carpet	2
Chloroclysta citrata	Dark Marbled Carpet	22
Plemyria rubiginata	Blue-bordered Carpet	1
Thera obeliscata	Grey Pine Carpet	2
Hydriomena furcata	July Highflyer	6
Epirrita dilutata	November Moth	1
Ennomos alniaria	Canary-shouldered Thorn	1
Eugnorisma depuncta	Plain Clay	2
Noctua pronuba	Large Yellow Underwing	8
Noctua comes	Lesser Yellow Underwing	4
Noctua janthe	Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing	13
Eugnorisma glareosa	Autumnal Rustic	5
Diarsia dahlii	Barred Chestnut	1
Xestia xanthographa	Square-spot Rustic	1
Aporophyla nigra	Black Rustic	1
Xanthia togata	Pink-barred Sallow	7
Apamea monoglypha	Dark Arches	3
Apamea lithoxylaea	Light Arches	1
Mesapamea secalis agg.	Common Rustic agg.	3
Chortodes pygmina	Small Wainscot	4
Amphipoea lucens	Large Ear	1
Hydraecia micacea	Rosy Rustic	6