Dewick's Plusea & Scarce Footman added to year list.

Sunday 6th July 2025.

A Silver Y being accompanied by a much rarer Dewick's Plusea moth.

I was awoken this morning with the sound of light rain outside and thankfully, when I finally got out of bed at 5am, got dressed and had a coffee, the rain had stopped and left me to get on to check the Moth Box again. No Birding this afternoon as we took our Isabelle down to Moors Valley Country Park.

My Moth Box:

My first Scarce Footman moth for the year.

Another excellent haul of Moths awaited me as I slowly went through the outside of the Moth Box and the sodden egg trays outside the Box. A good total of 105 moths of 52 species were recorded and easily the pick of the bunch was a pristine Dewick’s Plusea moth of which I carefully potted for some photos later. This is a rare immigrant moth of which I have had a handful over the years, but my first for around three years I believe.

Above, Small Ranunculus moth and below, my second Turnip Moth of the year.

Above, the first Clay moth for the garden this year and below, an  Ash-bark Knot-horn moth.

The other Moth new for the year was a Scarce Footman that was perched on the Box close to the light bulb. Scalloped Oak, Turnip Moth, Black Arches and Marbled Green were all my second ones this year in my garden. Two Langmaid’s Yellow Underwings was notable. I had to rescue several Moths from the top of my rainguard, sadly sodden and upside down in the wet and I did manage to save some, but some simply could not be saved.  

Above, I managed to rescue this Small White butterfly from the puddle by my Moth Box this morning. Below, the wet weather brought out plenty of both Snails and Slugs including this huge probable Spanish Slug.

One thing I did save was a Small White butterfly that was laying on its side, but I carefully picked it up and placed it gently in one of our pot plants close by. 

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

Macro Moths:                                          Micro Moths:

Dewick’s Plusea x1 *                             Large Pale Masoner x4 

Silver Y x4                                              Black-banded Masoner x4

Scalloped Oak x1                                   Apple Leaf Miner x2

Lime-speck Pug x3                                Ruddy Streak x3

Double-striped Pug x2                           Mother of Pearl x1

Heart & Dart x1                               White-shouldered House Moth x1

Grey / Dark Dagger x1                           Bird-cherry Ermine x8

Willow Beauty x3                                   Garden Grass-veneer x3

Turnip Moth x1                                       Blushed Knot-horn x1

Langmaid’s Yellow Underwing x2          Common Masoner x2

Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x1

Knot Grass x1

Large Yellow Underwing x2                    Rosy Tabby x4

Lesser Yellow Underwing x1                Light Brown Apple Moth

L-album Wainscot                                   Brown Bark Moth x1

Riband Wave x4                                     Garden Grey x1 

Black Arches x1                                     Common Plume x4

Dark Arches x4                             White-banded Grass-moth x1

Dun-bar x1                                             Oak Knot-horn x1

Marbled Green x1                                  Rusty-dot Pearl x5

Marbled Beauty x2

Common Rustic x3

Scarce Footman x1*

Common Footman x1

Shuttle-shaped Dart x2

Single-dotted Wave x1

Dwarf Cream Wave x1

August Thorn x3

Elephant Hawk-moth x1

Bright-line Brown-eye x3

Clay x1

White Ermine x3

Small Ranunculus x1

In Hampshire today, there were up to 7 Quail reported singing around the Martin Down area this morning after reports of singing birds there yesterday. Three Spoonbills were on Titchfield Haven today along with 3 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpipers and a 3 Green Sandpipers on the reserve. A juvenile Yellow-legged Gull was reported at Hill Head.