Thursday 25 July 2013

A bumper moth night!

Last night the storms avoided us and I was able to leave the light trap out all night.  I was rewarded with at least 149 moths of 34 species.  14 of these were new moths for the year and 1 of the 14 was a first for the backyard.  The new record was an impressive looking moth called a Green-patched Looper Moth (Diachrysia balluca).  This is also called a Hologram moth which is understandable when you see the light reflecting off of the forewing. I feel that my photographs do not really do it justice but I did take one photograph with a flashlight pointing at it.  As you can see the colour changed from green to bronze when the light was directed at the moth.  In addition to this I found my first Underwing moth of the year in the bait trap.  So all in all it was a very good moth night!  The new species for the year were:

**Green-patched Looper Moth (Diachrysia balluca)**
Orange-barred Carpet Moth (Dysstroma hersiliata)
Northwestern Phoenix Moth (Eulithis xylina)
Scallop Shell (Rheumaptera undulata)
Briseis Underwing (Catocala briseis)
Double Lobed (Apamea ophiogramma)
Brown-streaked Rustic (Hypocoena rufostrigata)
Civil Rustic Moth (Platyperigea montana)
Bronzed Cutworm Moth (Nephelodes minians)
Euxoa tristicula (Euxoa tristicula)
Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)
Smith's Dart (Xestia smithii)
Green Arches (Anaplectoides prasina)
Catocaline Dart (Cryptocala acadiensis)

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