Backyard Sphinx and Underwing moths for June & July

With the exception of the One-eyed Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi), a new backyard species, I’ve had all of the following moth species in my backyard light trap over the years but this is the first time I’ve had them all in the same year.

The One-eyed Sphinx was showing some wear and I was unable to get an open winged shot of the Briseis Underwing (Catocala briseis) before it got away but I think they still make reasonable photographs.  The Underwings can be tricky to separate but given its size, a wingspan at least 8cm, colour and wide black bands, I am reasonably confident that the first photograph is a Once-married Underwing (Catocala unijuga).

I’ve had a good number of new backyard species during our extended hot spell which I will be blogging about in the near future.

27th-28th June

There were 15 Macro moths of 8 species in my light trap on the 27th and 29 moths of 13 species last night.  The numbers appear to be picking a bit up now.  It was nice that, for once, the Geometrids stayed still long enough for a few photographs.  All the photographs consist of at least 2 images that were “stacked” in Photoshop.  Stacking allows me to get a better depth of field.

Crocus Geometer moth (Xanthotype sospeta) is difficult to separate from False Crocus Geometer Moth (Xanthotype urticaria) but I’ve tentatively put this one down as Crocus Geometer because of the paler yellow colour and relatively smaller and less prominent markings.

I’ve also included a photograph of one micro moth, Pyrausta nicalis.

20th-21st June

I finally got around to running the light trap overnight on the 20th June and last night.  There were 12 macro moths of 8 species in trap yesterday morning and 5 macro moths of 4 species in the trap this morning.  Neighbourly Arches (Lacinipolia vicina) and Large Looper (Autographa ampla) were the new species for the year. 

The following species were the ones photographed yesterday morning.  It’s always nice to see a Putnams Looper (Plusia putnami).  I believe the micro moth is a Large Aspen Tortrix Moth (Choristoneura conflictana).

The Moths are back!

I didn’t blog much at all last year but aim to be more active in 2017.  With that in mind and given the warmer weather, I decided to put my backyard light trap out last night.  I wasn’t disappointed as there were 4 moths of 4 species in the trap this morning and one of these appears to be a Goat Sallow Moth (Homoglaea hircina) which is a new backyard species.  Assuming that my ID is correct, that’s not a bad start to the mothing year!

Here’s the list and a few photographs taken this morning.

Speckled Green Fruitworm (Orthosia hibisci)
Western Swordgrass Moth (Xylena thoracica)
Dot-and-Dash Swordgrass (Xylena curvimacula)
Goat Sallow Moth (Homoglaea hircina)