Garden Moth Review 2020

The above photos are of 3 new moths that were trapped in the garden in 2020. They are as follows:

Elegia similella

Jersey Tiger

Tree-lichen Beauty

Elegia similella is a scarce resident occurring only in the south of England.

Jersey Tiger until recently was restricted to the Channel Islands and parts of the south coast.

Tree-lichen Beauty is a mostly migrant species, but more recently has bred and possibly established small resident populations.

The trap was run on 19 nights this year and due to Covid was more than the average of 12 (once a month).

The number of species caught was 130 and not surprisingly due to the above, was a record. However, the total number caught was 540 individuals, which was less than in 2019 (562).

There were 24 new species caught bringing my overall total for the garden to 323. My life list now stands at 405.

The Light Brown Apple Moth was the most numerous with 52 individuals. This was followed by the Shuttle-shaped Dart with 36 (a new record).

Overall since 2005, the Light Brown Apple Moth is still the most numerous moth found in the garden. Heart and Dart is next even though it had a poor year with only 13 recorded. Small Quaker also had a poor year and has now dropped out of the top10 most numerous list.