West Wickham Common Moths, May

Shears, Hada plebeja.  Noctuid.  Moth trap on West Wickham Common,  17 May 2012.

West Wickham Common is owned by the City of London and is one of a small number of excellent commons around the city which they own and manage.  I have come across the local rangers many times when they have led walks or events; two of the commons are within easy walking distance of my house.

West Wickham Common is 15 minutes away, and as well as volunteering to walk regular butterfly transects there I have persuaded the rangers to let me set moth traps, starting in May, with support from Luke, the local ranger.  They had traps in storage, and one is regularly used on Farthing Downs by Gill Peachey, a volunteer of long standing who has taught me a lot about trapping and identifying moths.

So we have begun.  The only source of power on West Wickham Common is the ranger's house, which limits where the trap can be set, but it is close to the woods and in theory we should get some interesting moths.  But the current run of cold and wet weather has badly affected the moth population.  I put out my own garden trap on the same night and got no moths at all, though I did catch a Cockchafer, a spider which is probably a Clubiona species, an Ichneumon Wasp and a Vine Weevil.  Which is all quite interesting, so it wasn't a dead loss.

And in the West Wickham Common trap there were only three moths.  This was the prettiest:

Shears, Hada plebeja.  Noctuid.  Moth trap on West Wickham Common,  17 May 2012.

This is the same specimen as the top photo.  It was new to me and I identified it later, from my photos.  Moth identification is something of an art.  You have to learn which features are important.  In this case, it is a mark right in the centre of each forewing, just inside a light oval mark, that can be construed to look like the blades of a pair of shears.  This is quite obvious to more experienced lepidopterists, apparently!

The other two were micromoths, which were identified by the experts on the ever-useful iSpot site.

Brown House-moth, Hofmannophila pseudospretella. West Wickham Common, 17 May 2012.

Yes, this house moth is the sort of moth that will lay eggs on woollen clothes.

Eudonia angustea. Moth trap on West Wickham Common, 17 May 2012.

These more flighty creatures were photographed still on the egg boxes they had settled on during the night.  Unlike the Noctuidae, they tend to walk or fly away when they are disturbed.  Noctuids like the Shears settle again readily, and sometimes play dead.

We were packing the trap away when I spotted another moth in the grass.  It's not unusual for moths to settle near the trap rather than in it.  Luckily, this one is easily seen!

Brimstone Moth, Opisthograptis luteolata. Moth trap on West Wickham Common, 17 May 2012.

So, a total of 4 moths this month.  I hope we will do a lot better in June.