Double The Effort...

...double the reward!

Last night the front garden looked like this...

My Skinner trap

And the back garden looked like this...

The Robinson - daddy of all moth traps!

And what a haul I had to go through this morning! 154 moths in all of 42 species, exactly 100 in the Robinson and 54 in the Skinner. I added some stunning new species to the garden list, six in total. I'll start with the rarest, a 'Nationally Scarce A' according to Waring and Townsend...

A Four-spotted Footman - with a Common Footman for comparison

Head on - he was in the Skinner

Side on - what a beast!!!

Then there was this beauty...

Ruby Tiger - from the Robinson

Just check out those red trousers!

The other four firsts were...

Pebble Hook-tip - from the Skinner

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing - from the Robinson; I caught four Yellow Underwing sp.

Flame Carpet - from the Skinner

Lychnis - from the Robinson

I'll combine the totals from both traps to complete this list of moths from this morning. Here it is: 15 Common Footman, 11 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, 11 Common/Lesser Rustic, 9 Silver Y, 7 Riband Wave, 6 Dark Arches, 6 Large Yellow Underwing, 6 Bright-line Brown-eyes, 5 Nut-tree Tussock, 5 Early Thorn, 5 Shuttle-shaped Dart, 5 Single-dotted Wave, 5 Buff Ermine, 5 Willow Beauty, 4 Small Fan-footed Wave, 4 Flame Shoulder, 4 Rosy Footman, 3 Magpie, 3 Rustic, 3 Uncertain, 2 Purple Thorn, 2 Dingy Footman, 2 Spectacle, 2 Cabbage Moth, 2 Beautiful Hook-tip, 2 Buff Arches, 2 Common Carpet, 2 Ear Moth sp. and singles of: Lesser Yellow Underwing, Double Square-spot, Small Emerald, Snout, Small Rivulet, Red Twin-spot Carpet, Brussels Lace, Brimestone, Poplar Hawkmoth and Pug sp. (it escaped before i could ID or photograph it!).

And breathe...