British mothers in the early spring

TL:DR – Mothing is a simple, but educational and fascinating hobby. The data it accumulates can be useful scientifically. I have lit up with a couple of different traps through the winter, but with generally disappointing results. There are not a lot of trees in our neighbourhood, which I suspect is the reason we don’t get a huge number of moths. That said, very few moth-ers see lots of moths in the gardens during the winter months. 15Watt Heath type, portable moth trap in place and ready for lighting up time I put out my “spare” Heath trap last night. It is basically an ultraviolet fluorescent tube supported above funnel on top of a plastic box. The UV tube attracts nocturnal moths. They flap about a bit around the tube, perhaps bash into the vertical plastic vanes, and drop into the box. The box contains a load of cardboard egg cartons and the moths will generally secrete themselves among the hollows once they’re bored with chasing the light. Come the morning, the diligent moth-er will be up at dawn to identify and count the moths trapped overnight, record the data ready to send off to the county moth recorder for scientific analysis along with records from others. The moths themselves are released off-site into bushes and undergrowth, preferably near dusk, and safely carry on with their lives. Quick phone macro shot of the Hebrew Character moth and in the background an Early Grey The haul from the moth trap, if you could call it a haul, was t...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs