October Moths at Farthing Downs

Copper Underwing, Amphipyra pyramidea.  Farthing Downs, 4 October 2011.

On 4th October Gill Peachey invited me to Farthing Downs for another moth-untrapping session. It was nearly two months since the previous one, and conditions for mothing were excellent; we had just had a week of heatwave, followed by a cooler, overcast night.

The trap was full of interesting and instructive moths. 76 macromoths of 24 different species, and a few micros as well.

Of course, some of them were by now quite familiar, like the Copper Underwing on the right and the Large Yellow Underwing just below. I also saw a Broad-Bordered Yellow Underwing fluttering about the lamp as I arrived; I was quite excited, thinking we had a big new yellow moth, but the bright light on the strong colour of the rear wings had fooled me.  It was great to see that a moth that looks like earth or a dead leaf when resting can be so vivid in flight.

Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba.
Farthing Downs, 4 October 2011.

As before, the City of London wardens kindly allowed us to use their premises, and we were joined both for the untrapping and the ID session afterwards by one of the wardens, who really got stuck in. I really enjoy these sessions, and Gill is a good teacher.

Although I have seen lots of Large Yellow Underwings recently, I included this one because it has clear wing markings as well as that distinctive beak, which makes it a good example.

Gill made sure to pot up several specimens of three types of moth that can look very much alike, and all three of us pored over the books until we could distinguish them fairly easily. These are the Beaded Chestnuts, Brown-Spot Pinions and Lunar Underwings shown below. I have seen a dozen Lunar Underwings in my own trap, but only one of them was the brown shade that can let them be confused with these others; that shade seems to be more common here at Farthing Downs.

Some of these photos are on a rough card background; they are still resting in the egg-boxes that are left for them in the trap. Others are on grey, squared paper; those are 5mm sqares that I printed off, which allows a good size comparison however the photos might be processed.

A few others are in pots or on other surfaces, like the Copper Underwing above which is on the concrete next to the trap.

The most showy catch today was a Frosted Orange, which I will include at the bottom of this post. I will show more of these moths on another day.

Beaded Chestnut, Agrochola lychnidis.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.

Brown-Spot Pinion, Agrochola litura.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.

Lunar Underwing, Omphaloscelis lunosa.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.

Two more that I thought were quite similar in appearance, though they are not actually related; the Brindled Green and the Large Ranunculus. This Brindled Green does not look very green. The colour was hard to distinguish under the artificial light of the Rangers' room. Green fades very quickly from moths.

Brindled Green, Dryobotodes eremita.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.

Large Ranunculus, Polymixis flavicincta.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.

Notice how the different apparent size of the grey squares tells you that the Large Ranunculus is bigger than the Brindled Green.

Finally, the showy one:

Frosted Orange, Gortyna flavago.  Noctuid.  Moth trap at Farthing Downs with Gill Peachey, 4 October 2011.