Fort Augustus Moths - June 26 2016

Jean and Tony Denison own 12 acres of ground on the edge of Fort Augustus which they manage sympathetically for wildlife. The site contains a large area of oak and birch dominated woodland with luxuriant ground cover, including extensive patches of blueberry. There is also a wildflower meadow with orchids. The whole site is full of excellent moth habitat. The owners have a good bird and plant list for the site but no-one had previously looked for moths.

Six traps were run overnight of 25/26 June with conditions being perfect for midges – calm, warm, overcast and drizzly – and hence good for moths too. In the morning, only a handful of people turned up for the event but it was a case of quality not quantity, with two VC recorders, an ex-VC recorder and the Conservation Manager of Dundreggan Estate (Trees for Life) present.

 

Luckily, moths turned up in good numbers and during the course of the morning we notched up an incredible 77 species!! Highlights in terms of rarity were Marbled Brown, with only two previous records for the VC, and Valerian Pug. But there were plenty of cracking-but-not-so-rare moths, such as Elephant and Poplar Hawkmoths, Pebble Hook-tip, Gold and Map-winged Swifts, Peppered, Drinker, Beautiful Golden Y, Foxglove Pug and Birch Mocha.

 

After 3 hours going through the moth traps, with only a short break for coffee, we were thoroughly mothed-out but what a fantastic number of species we had seen. Full list below.

 

Brussels Lace                                                                              Marbled Brown

 

Valerian Pug

 

Acompsia cinerella	flame carpet	pebble hook-tip
Agriphila straminella	flame shoulder	peppered
beautiful golden Y	foxglove pug	Pinion-streaked snout
birch mocha	gold swift	Poplar hawkmoth
Blastobasis lacticolella	grass rivulet	poplar lutestring
brimstone	green arches	purple bar
broom	green carpet	purple clay
brown rustic	grey arches	riband wave
Brussels lace	grey pug	rustic shoulder-knot
Celypha lacunana	iron prominent	satin lutestring
Chrysoteuchia culmella	knot-grass	scalloped hazel
clouded border	large yellow underwing	scalloped hook-tip
clouded-bordered brindle	Lathronympha strigana	Scoparia ambigualis
common carpet	lesser swallow prominent	silver-ground carpet
common lutestring	light emerald	small angle shades
common marbled carpet	map-winged swift	small phoenix
common wave	marbled brown	small square-spot
common white wave	marbled minor	smoky wainscot
coxcomb prominent	middle-barred minor	straw dot
Crambus lathoniellus	mottled beauty	Swammerdamia caesiella
Crambus pascuella	Notocelia cynosbatella	true lover's knot
dark brocade	Ocnerostoma friesei	valerian pug
diamond-back	Ocnerostoma piniariella	Welsh wave
drinker	Opostega salaciella	white ermine
Edinburgh pug	pale-shouldered brocade	white-shouldered house moth
elephant hawkmoth	peacock