Olive-tree Pearl moth new for the year.

Tuesday 5th September 2023.

My first Olive-tree Pearl of the year.

Putting the moth box on overnight paid dividends this morning as I clocked up a very good haul of moths and added a new species for the year list. It was going to be a humid night and even by 10pm last night, the moths came in thick and fast, with a couple of Old Ladies fluttering around and lots of Box Tree Moths. In fact, they were easily the most numerous of species this morning with a total of 22 moths in all; easily surpassing the highest total of this species this year.

One of two Old Lady moths.

An Olive-tree Pearl (Palpita vitrealis) was new for the year and though classed as a micro moth, it is certainly a smart dainty looking species. Three species of Underwing were present, while all the familiar moths were present in reasonable numbers. The weather most certainly has an impact on moth numbers and the hot weather during the day is supposed to last till at least Thursday and get up into the 90’s! I shall no doubt put the moth box on possibly tonight. 

One of three Marbled Beauty moths. 

Also noteworthy was the two Great Green Bush-crickets calling in vegetation somewhere by the gardens last night. It was too dark to see the Crickets, but I could clearly hear ‘stridulate’ (the rubbing of wings to produce their stridulation) deep within the vegetation. Sadly, they are not making the same sound during the day, but I shall keep an ear out for them.

One of at least 22 Box Tree Moths today.

A total of 97 moths of 31 species were recorded:

• 2 Old Lady
• 4 Willow Beauty
• 3 Marbled Beauty
• 1 Double-striped Pug
• 1 Silver Y
• 3 Small Dusty Wave
• 4 Garden Carpet
• 3 Shuttle-shaped Dart 
• 2 White-point
• 1 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Riband Wave
• 8 Large Yellow Underwing
• 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 3 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
• 1 Bright-line Brown-eye
• 3 Square-spot Rustic
• 4 Vines Rustic
• 3 Pale Mottled Willow
• 3 Brimstone Moth
• 2 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Olive-tree Pearl (NFY)
• 22 Box Tree Moth
• 2 Elbow-striped Grass-veneer
• 6 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Hawthorn Moth
• 5 Ruddy Streak
• 1 Chestnut Tortrix
• 1 Broom Shoot Moth
• 1 House Neb
• 2 Brown House Moth
• 1 Pellitory Cosmet

I was watering the garden during the early part of the evening and a lot of moths flew out of the plants when dowsed with water including this splendid Small Blood-vein, which was completely unexpected. This was my first of the year of this well marked moth. As dusk fell, a Migrant Hawker Dragonfly was making sorties over mine and my neighbour's garden until disappearing.