Another huge haul of Moths produced another 'Lifer!

 Friday 26th June 2026.

My first Festoon Moth of the year.

I don't think it was as hot as yesterday here in Southsea, for the morning there was a bit of cloud cover and a nice breeze that kept the temperature down to around 26 degrees centigrade, but the afternoon, it most definitely got a lot hotter and in some parts of the UK, the June heat record was broken yet again!

Yet again, my Moth Box was on overnight and another bumper Moth haul was had and with the added bonus of a ‘Lifer’ macro Moth thrown in; a very good start to the day. Thankfully, the weather is changing over the weekend, with rain forecast here in the south, though I believe Saturday looks to be very warm. Hopefully, Cowplain Marsh will be full of lovely ‘Mothy goodness!’ I did turn up for my first and only shift at Pembroke Road this morning only to be told by a passing Teacher that it was an Inset Day today! Doh!

My Moth Box:

My first ever SMALL ENGRAILED moth that I was somewhat lucky to find.

It was lovely to hear the waves crash on the shoreline from my garden this morning. It must have been high tide in the Solent as I could hear the waves clearly crash on the shingle beach on such a windless still morning at 5am. I have now taken the white sheet down and left the white board behind the Moth Box. The White sheet was too big and occasionally flapped over the Moth Box and therefore disturbing the Moths. Hopefully, this will be a bit more successful over the coming months.

My first Nut-tree Tussock moth to my garden this year.

I was blessed with a new moth for my Moth Life List this morning and I could have easily missed it or mistook it for a Willow Beauty. It was clinging to my kitchen wall, upon the dark brickwork and I decided to take a photo of it anyway. It wasn't till I checked my photos on my phone that  I thought it looked a lot different from Willow Beauty and so checking it on Obsidentify, it turned out to be a SMALL ENGRAILED!!! I therefore went back to the Moth and took some more photos of this new moth.

Above, this Grey Knot-horn was one of a few I have had this week in my garden and below, this Mottled Oak Tortrix was my first for the year.

There were only two other Moths new for the year this morning despite recorded 190 Moths of 51 species; but they were the macro moth Festoon and the micro moth Mottled Oak Tortrix (Zeiraphera isertana), a species that is near annual to my garden, but only in a handful of numbers. The Nut-tree Tussock sitting behind my Moth Box on my neighbours wall, was the first one for my garden this year and there were good numbers of the immigrant moth Diamondback Moth with at least 10 recorded this morning. The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
White Ermine x6	Bird-cherry Ermine x5
Festoon * x1	Garden Mompha x1
SMALL ENGRAILED * x1	Garden Grass-veneer x13
Treble Brown Spot x1	White-banded Grass-moth x1
Double-striped Pug x8	Large Pale Masoner x3
Cream-bordered Green Pea x1	Blushed Knot-horn 16
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x1	Bud Moth x2
Marbled Beauty x2	Common Masoner x6
Heart & Dart x3	Light Brown Apple Moth x4
Brown-tail x3	Box Tree Moth x3
Riband Wave x31	Golden-brown Tubic x4
Pale Mottled Willow x3	Codling Moth x1
Bright-line Brown-eye x1	White-shouldered House Moth x1
Garden Carpet x1	Common Plume x2
Willow Beauty x4	Apple Leaf Miner x8
Nut-tree Tussock x1	Beautiful Plume x1
Lackey x1	Elderberry Pearl x1
Common Emerald x5	Gold Triangle x3
Lime-speck Pug x4	Mottled Oak Tortrix * x1
Dark Arches x4	Rufous Pearl x2
Silver Y x1	Diamondback Moth x10
Uncertain x1	Pale-backed Detritus Moth x1
	Ruddy Streak x3
	Mother of Pearl x1
	Garden Grey x6
	Thistle Marble x4
	Rusty-dot Pearl x1
	Red-barred Tortrix x1
	Grey Knot-horn x1

The insects drawn to my Moth Box overnight included an incredibly obliging Acorn Weevil, which I think I have never seen before. I didn't even know that it could fly as well, but I saw it open up its wing cases as if to fly!

This Acorn Weevil was a nice surprise on one of the egg trays. An Elderberry Pearl moth was below it.

Other notable insects included about a dozen plus Lacewing, two Strawberry Seed Beetles, a Broad Centurion Soldier Fly and two species of Hoverfly; a Batman Hoverfly and at least three Marmalade Hoverflies.

Another top selling album from the back catalogue.