The moth trap has been very interesting over the last few nights with lots of moths including some new ones and some that I get maybe once or twice annually. This morning there were 40 species, which is good for here, including Common and Small Emerald, Scalloped Oak, Buff and Muslin Footman, Leopard Moth, Ear moth and 2 Elephant Hawkmoths. There was also a carpet that I didn't recognise but on looking it up my initial thoughts were Balsam Carpet, however, reading the blurb it seemed very unlikely so I tentatively thought Large Twin-spot carpet. We went down to Dungeness where DW agreed with my initial thoughts that it looked more like Balsam but again, caution and various other opinions headed us towards Large Twin-spot.
DW had some moths to take to SC so he took along the carpet which was immediately identified as a Balsam Carpet, a National A scarce moth. Some research suggests that there may have been a record from 1998 from vice county 15.
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| Muslin Footman |
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| Buff Footman |
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| Balsam Carpet |
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| Balsam Carpet |
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Nice one Gill! I've only seen Balsam Carpet at Abinger in Surrey. They occur on a wet area of greensand where there is a lot of Small Balsam.
ReplyDeleteDon't know of any Balsam round here but nice to get a really interesting moth for a change. It's been a good few days with several new for the trap.
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