A rare import is new for Herts On the Sunday morning of the 28th of August I was going through my trap and noting down the moths I found nestled within the egg trays when I noticed an unfamiliar looking moth at the bottom of the trap...I got very excited when I potted it up and could not even place the genus let alone the species! A quick fumble through the guides revealed nothing...it wasn't in them. A quick post on social media revealed that it was a Thaumatotibia leucotreta or False Codling Moth an adventive species that feeds off of Citrus fruits. Obviously an import and I am 98% sure it has been brought in on something locally but with the constant migrants recorded lately I couldn't rule it out totally! New to Herts and I think the 4th? record for the UK. After that excitement it meant that year first species weren't as breathtaking but welcome all the same.

Species numbers are slowly dwindling and as usual the bulk of the catch is usually about 4 species this time of year.

The specimen resides in the collection of C.W.Plant and will be shown at the Herts Moth Group AGM in 2017.

Catch Report - 27/08/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Coxcomb Prominent 1 [NFY] Flounced Rustic 1 [NFY] Angle Shades 1 Brimstone Moth 6 Burnished Brass 1 Common Rustic 2 Dark Arches 1 Dun-bar 2 Dusky Thorn 3 Flame Shoulder 2 Garden Carpet 4 Green Carpet 1 Large Yellow Underwing 14 Lesser Yellow Underwing 4 Riband Wave 1 Setaceous Hebrew Character 36 Straw Dot 1 Square-spot Rustic 10 Vine's Rustic 6

Micro Moths

Thaumatotibia leucotreta 1 [NEW!] Nomophila noctuella 1 [NFY] Acrobasis advenella 1 Blastobasis adustella 3 Celypha lacunana 2 Emmelina monodactyla 2 Epiphyas postvittana 5 Eudemis profundana 2 Pandemis corylana 2 Plutella xylostella 2