Another new micro this morning.

Thursday 13th October 2022.

The Bloxworth Snout moth I caught last night by my moth box.

I put my moth box on last night, the first time since last week and although it rained very heavily in the early hours of this morning, it produced a few surprises, notably a new micro moth species for my life list. A check on the moth box last night revealed an interesting macro moth of which turned out to be my 3rd Bloxworth Snout of the year which I quickly potted. There were a few Light Brown Apple Moths on top of the rain guard and one was huge and so I potted it, prepared to ID it tomorrow morning.

Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix.

There has been some controversy on how good the App Obsidentify actually is and how accurate after reading some of the comments on the Facebook Moth pages and one moth in particular this morning came up as Acleris hastiana, when in fact it was postvittana (Light Brown Apple Moth). The new micro moth that was positively identified was a Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix, which I thought was a little late for this moth, but it was most certainly a good third bigger than the rest of the micros present.

The micro moth Crocidosema plebejana.

The moths present in and around my moth box this morning included the following:

• 1 Angle Shades
• 5 Double-striped Pug
• 4 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 1 Bloxworth Snout
• 1 Dark Fruit-tree Tortrix (NFY + LIFER)
• 1 Crocidosema plebejana
• 16 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Eudonia angustea
• 1 Tachystola acroxantha
• 1 Box Tree Moth
• 3 Clepsis consimilana
• 1 Common Plume

Another interesting creature that turned up in my sodden garden, in fact on the glass of my back garden door, was a Yellow-striped Flatworm. Strangely, it is always around this time of year that they start to appear in my garden. I have seen them scale the brickwork at the back of my house in very wet conditions and due to the rain overnight, I found one making its way up my back kitchen door! Apparently, they are an invasive species that were probably brought in on house plants from Australia and not a good species to have for they do attack our native earthworms.

The Yellow-striped Flatworm. An annual visitor to my garden in Autumn in wet conditions.

At least two Chiffchaffs were calling in the back of the garden this morning, with at least one individual seen flitting about the trees in the drizzle. A quick look on Hants Birding and already some brave soul has gone birding this morning and found 3 Dartford Warblers within the gorse at Fort Cumberland. Well done that chap.