So Moth Night is over for another year and I was pretty pleased with the results from our little patch of mothy heaven. A total of 21 species and 217 individuals recorded from the two nights I ran the moth traps. The weather wasn’t perfect (it chucked it down the first night) but the moths were obviously more intrepid than me and braved the elements to come to the lights. (if you light it they will come…)

For the first time I’d tried the sugaring technique, daubing our apple tree with the sticky sugary concoction – and success! This beautiful Copper Underwing just couldn’t resist the sweet smell and spent a long time filling his proverbial boots from the tree. I was a bit worried the moths might just get stuck in the sugar, but thankfully morning came and no sign of treacly embalmed insects.

The vast bulk of them were Large Yellow Underwings (156 individuals) which tend to dominate the traps at this time of year. But amongst them were a few other beauties, like this lovely autumnal looking Centre Barred Sallow. These pretty moths are supposedly coloured like this so they are camouflaged against the autumn leaves.

Also popping up were these Lunar Underwings – I have a soft spot for these probably because the name reminds me of the “Giant Lunar Moth” from the Dr Dolittle film (now that would be a sight at the moth trap!)  Hopefully Moth Night will have been a success all over the country and provide plenty of useful data for their conservation.