Deep Winter Moths at Beddington Farmlands

Caught a couple 'new for years' in the moth trap this week including Pale Brindled Beauty and Winter Shade. There is a very cold spell starting tomorrow so presumably the moths will dry up for a bit but as we go further into February it won't be long before the Quakers and the 'early Spring' moths appear. In tribute to winter drawing to a close here's a few winter hardy souls in the moth world that are on the wing through the deepest dark nights of the deepest part of winter in this part of the world. 

December moth- looks well prepared for winter with it's thick winter coat

Agonopoterix alstromeriana - a bit of a Beddington speciality , there were up to three in the trap this week . Also known as the Hemlock moth or Brown-spot Flat-body

Winter Shade, Tortricodes alternella 

New Zealand Light Brown Apple Moth- I don't think this chooses to be on the wing in mid-winter. An adventive moth that has colonised the UK after being accidently introduced through food trade from New Zealand. Seems to survive well even though it's switched hemispheres knackering it's life cycle synchronisation. 

Beautiful Plume- amazes me that something this fragile can survive the mid-winter nights 

Spring Usher- there was only one previous record of Spring Usher for Beddington Farmlands before this winter but this year we've had a run of them. A seemingly very variable species SEE HERE

Pale Brindled Beauty

Narrow-winged Grey, Eudonia angustea

A member of the Acleris family that I can't identify and are in fact mainly identified by dissection. A few of these are also on the wing in mid-winter.

Chestnut

Mottled Umbers and Winter Moth (bottom left). Didn't actually get a Mottled Umber here this winter but this picture is from a previous January

Satellite- another one that appears in mid-winter, again not this year but a previous January