Ooh, You Little Beauty...

The trap is out again tonight.

This surprises me. I really had no intention of trapping until next year. Apart from practical difficulties imposed by the lack of an outside power supply and nowhere to process a catch, I simply had no desire to make a start until winter had been and gone. And I saw little potential in our new home's location, so didn't think I would be missing much.

But...

J-u-u-u-st out of curiosity I popped a 20W actinic bulb into our porch light to find out if any moths did visit the neighbourhood, naively believing I could take a detached interest if anything actually turned up. Detached, my foot.

Just over a fortnight ago, out went the trap.

Numerically-speaking our 40W actinic bucket trap has always produced far smaller catches than social media suggests most other moth folk tend to get, though I do realise many may be operating MV or multiple traps. Even so, our trap has done well in terms of both variety and quality; in West Dorset there were many exciting moths. But here we are now in East Devon. Would it be any good? Well, we are at least twice as far from the sea, so migrant potential must be somewhat diminished surely?

Since first deploying the trap I have recorded a measly 60 moths of 25 species. However, of that total, 18 moths of nine species have been migrants, and that strikes me as pretty decent. Most have been common, or at least regular migrants. Until this morning...

Last night's weather was mostly dire, with persistent, sometimes heavy rain. Even so, a few moths were evidently abroad. There was a December Moth on the wall, two Rusty-dot Pearls around the trap, and I found our first Angle Shades and Turnip Moth lurking nearby...

Angle Shades

Turnip Moth

Along with the Rusty-dot Pearls, both the above are likely migrants, so I was hopeful there might be some more in the trap this morning...

In the event everything was very wet, and I wasn't hopeful. Several soggy egg trays and one Rusty-dot Pearl later, the trap was seemingly empty. But right at the bottom of the bucket, clinging to the side wall, was this...

Banded Sable Spoladea recurvalis

I met this species just over a year ago, when I kicked one out of the grass at Cogden. At the time I recognised it from photos on Bluesky but couldn't recall the name, though I did know it was a scarce migrant. So this morning I knew exactly what I was dealing with!

'Ooh, you little beauty,' was the involuntary utterance as I gingerly engulfed it with a pot.

How scarce? In Devon there have been 17 records up to the end of 2024. To put this in context, there are more than twice as many Devon records of Crimson Speckled! So. Jammy, or what?!

Just 60 moths so far. One a first for Devon, another a scarce migrant with less than 20 county records. Pretty happy with that!

Anyway, a few more recent moths...

Merveille du Jour. Our third, which is already one more than we managed in Bridport.

Rusty-dot Pearl. Seven so far.

Vine's Rustic. Six so far.

Last night's December Moth, our fifth.

This December Moth was near the porch light, and for some reason adopted this pose for the whole day.

Thursday night's weather was horrendous, and I didn't bother with the trap. Even so, this Vestal was pulled in by the porch light. Our second.

Vestal magnet.

Banded Sable pot-shot first thing. Just in case this was all I got.

Finally, a list of our 18 migrants...

Banded Sable 1

Olive-tree Pearl 2

Vestal 2

Angle Shades 1

Diamond-back Moth 1

Rusty-dot Pearl 7

Silver Y 1

Turnip Moth 1

White-point 2