On a night when 2 Rusty-dot Pearl provided the only immigrant interest in the Obs garden moth-traps it was a surprise to also catch a likely first for the island in the form of a Brown-barred Twist Epagoge grotiana.
Brown-barred Twist - Portland Bill, 5th July 2016 © Martin Cade
It seems as though grotiana is mainly a moth of deciduous woodland and is relatively uncommon in Dorset as a whole so we probably haven't been overlooking it. Also thanks to Debby Saunders for a photo of a very unseasonable Feathered Brindle caught overnight in her trap at Sweethill:
...this brought to mind an equally out of season Feathered Ranunculus that we caught last week (27th June) at the Grove:
...for reasons that remain obscure, Feathered Ranunculus has become an almost expected mid-summer moth of late - there's never more than the odd one or two each year but we now have records in all but one of the last seven years.
Finally, thanks as usual to Ken Dolbear for some more lovely butterfly photos, this time from this afternoon at Broadcroft BC reserve - Lulworth Skipper and some Silver-studded Blues:
