Nature Notes from Argyll
(and occasionally other places)

Sat 26 Jul 2008 Glen Nant National Nature Reserve (Page 1 of 2)

Inspection of moth traps set out overnight with Tom Prescott of Butterfly Conservation, Helen Wilson of the Forestry Commission and Andrew Masterman, Argyll Moth Recorder.

Another opportunity to see the beauties that fly by night.  Altogether 89 species were found in a total of 4 traps.  I only managed to photograph a selection of them and can't be sure that all the ID's are correct.  There's no time to take measurements at an event like this and obviously the pictures are not all to the same scale.

There was only a small overlap with the species found in the Ballachuan traps on 17 May.  This probably has more to do with the different time of year than the different location.

The three above were all quite frequent in the traps: the Large Emerald, the Light Emerald (larger than the picture suggests) and the Brimstone Moth.

These two also turned up several times: Scalloped Oak and Swallow-tailed Moth.

Two Dotted Carpets and a Barred Red.

Some species are very variable.  These are both examples of the Mottled Beauty.

On the left, the Satin Beauty.  Strange how the least beautiful moths are called Beauty.  On the right, the Common White Wave, which was one of the commonest finds in the traps.

All the moths shown so far have been of the Geometrid family, and all except the first are from the subfamily Ennominae.

Two more waves, the Small Fan-footed Wave and the Riband Wave.  These belong to the subfamily Sterrhinae.

The Birch Mocha is also in the Sterrhinae.  Moving on to the Larentiinae, we have another wave, the Welsh Wave, which occurred quite frequently, and the Barred Carpet.  The next 8 are in the same subfamily.

Three more carpets: the Grey Pine Carpet, the Green Carpet (whose initial green colour quickly fades) and the Common Marbled Carpet.  If I ever run a moth trap I'll use less garish eggboxes!

July Highflyer, Northern Spinach and Barred Straw

We finish the Geometrids with the Wormwood Pug and the Green Pug.

On to page 2
 

All photos and other content copyright © Carl Farmer