Not Quite Scilly: A Full Set of Blair's

Back in June 2022 I fired up a moth trap for the very first time. It was an experiment really. A little dabble...

I had no idea.

Prior to our move to Axminster I packed the trap away and tallied up the garden list. Including aggregates, 603 is a tidy figure I reckon. There are some real gems among that lot, probably due to our proximity to some nice, varied habitat, and of course, the English Channel. However, on September 22nd the Dorset moth experiment came to an end.

We are now in Devon, and a few miles further from the coast, on an estate of very new houses with miniscule gardens and bright, all-night street lights. I suspected that the moth potential would likely be very poor, and had absolutely no intention of unpacking the trap until some time next year...

Our house is nine years old, and came with a cheap, generic porch light in dire need of replacement. So, I thought, why not install something with enough room to house a 20W actinic lamp? You never know, perhaps the odd moth might be attracted to it.

That very first night produced four moths to the porch light: three Common Marbled Carpets and an Oak Longhorn (Carcina quercana). The Axminster Moth List had begun.

Though, actually it had begun a bit earlier...

Three days after moving in I found a tiny moth indoors and took a couple of dodgy photos. It looked good for Obscure Mompha (Mompha jurassicella) but the Devon Moths website suggests that this species has never been recorded in Devon. It is also Nationally Scarce A, so I dismissed it. And then on October 19th I found another, also indoors...

Taken with the phone camera, this looks bang-on for Obscure Mompha.

There are two similar species - which themselves are basically indistinguishable without surgery - but Obscure Mompha is supposedly doable from photos, being much less strongly marked than the other two. All I can say is that these pics match very closely those I have researched online. Anyway, on Ocober 29th I found yet another, also in the house. Needless to say, all the inevitable sleuthing got me into moth mode.

And so, out came the trap...

Tuesday night last week, it was. A quick check before bed, and absolutely nothing to see. I was convinced it would be empty come Wednesday morning. On the contrary, there were six moths in it, and another around the corner by the porch light: White-point and Rusty-dot Pearl were possible migrants, and were accompanied by two Vine's Rustics and singles of Large Yellow Underwing, Green-brindled Crescent and Merveille du Jour. The latter two are classic autumn moths, but I had previously caught only four and two respectively in Bridport. An auspicious first outing for the trap.

No trap the following night, but a pristine Merveille du Jour to the porch light!

Green-brindled Crescent

The first Merveille du Jour - a bit worn.

The second Merveille du Jour. Rather bright!

Since then the trap has been out several times. Just the one blank, on a very wet and windy Tuesday night. But last night made up for it, with 10 moths of nine species. Three were nice migrants...

Olive-tree Pearl Palpita vitrealis. As far as I can tell, we had just four in Bridport (one in 2022 and three last autumn) so this is a classy moth to catch so soon.

Rusty-dot Pearl Udea ferrugalis - a common migrant, but still nice to catch.

Vestal. We caught a dozen or so in Bridport, though none last year.

Also...

Another Green-brindled Crescent

A nicely-marked November Moth agg.

Red-green Carpet

And a couple from previous traps...

This Silver Y was another species for the 'possible migrant' list...

...as was this nice White-point.

Finally, the reason for the title of this post...

Sitting on the wall above the kitchen door this morning was a new moth for me. Not rare or anything, but a species that we simply didn't encounter in Bridport...

Blair's Shoulder-knot

Doctor Kenneth Gloyne Blair modestly gave his name to three moth species. In 1945 there was a wainscot. He named it Blair's Wainscot. The following year, a mocha. 'Thanks, I'll have that one too,' said the good doctor: Blair's Mocha. Finally, in 1951, a shoulder-knot. 'You know what? I'll have that one as well. Me. Doctor Blair. Blair's Shoulder-knot we'll call it. Ta.'

And I can claim to be one of what is almost certainly a very, very small number of moth recorders to have caught all three in his garden...