A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Plenty of moths in the trap in last night's mild, damp conditions:

18 x Snout
9 x Copper Underwing agg
7 x Common Marbled Carpet
5 x Silver Y
4 x Lesser Yellow Underwing
3 x Tachystola acroxantha
2 x Brimstone
2 x Light-brown Apple Moth
2 x Willow Beauty
1 x Barred Sallow
1 x Brindled Green
1 x Green-brindled Crescent
1 x Cypress Pug
1 x Red Admiral
1 x Garden Rose Tortrix
1 x Phyllonorycter sp
1 x Large Yellow Underwing
1 x Pale Pinion
1 x White-shouldered House Moth
1 x Eudonia angustea
1 x Caloptilia betulicola/elongella sp (Edit - might be rufipennella actually - TBC)

The Cypress Pug was a nice surprise! Might only be 2nd for Cheshire?

The Red Admiral, if anything, was an even bigger surprise - first time I've had a butterfly in the trap.

Cheers
Paul

The Cypress Pug is so rare here, it hasn't even got its photo in "Pug Moths of North-west England"!

It's in the un-recorded species section, with the text "A recent colonist from the south coast spreading north as far as Warwickshire".

Brian Hancock's book was published in 2018, so time marches on.

The Atlas of Britain and Ireland's Larger Moths (also 2018) shows a single record in Anglesey - "well outside its normal range" - in 2016 and one in Lincolnshire (pre-2000).

There's no doubt about the ID, though. As the caption says in Manley "unmistakeable"!

You mentioned that yours might be only the second sighting in Cheshire.

The first record was last year (August 2019) in Elton.