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St. Agnes, the most westerly island of the Isles of Scilly archipelago, presents not only good birding but for the moth enthusiast, a superb place for moth trapping. In ideal conditions, such as we had on the 11th - 14th October, anything can and does turn up. The week before we arrived, Porter’s Rustic, Radford’s Flame Shoulder, Blair’s Mocha, numerous Convolvulus Hawk Moths and several other good migrants had been trapped. Also this year on St.Mary’s a Clifden Nonpareil had been trapped, so we were full of optimism and were sure we would get some good moths and some good birds. We were not to be disappointed.
A Mercury Vapour Light and Skinner Trap were used each night from 11th to 16th October. Location, Troy Town Farm, St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly. The evenings of 11th,12th and 13th provided perfect moth trapping conditions – Warm Southerly wind, cloud and very slight drizzle mid-evening.
The numbers marked with an asterisk (*) indicate moths that were not trapped at Troy Town Farm.
Highlights were – 1 Death’s Head Hawkmoth; 2 Convolvulus Hawkmoth; The 2nd* & 3rd record for St. Agnes of The Sallow, (2 separate individuals caught); 27 Scarce-bordered Straw; 1 Ni Moth (only 6 St. Agnes records prior to 1997); Slender Burnished Brass, trapped by Mike Hicks, (2 St Agnes records prior to 1998 and only about 90 British records); 3 Cosmopolitan (12 St. Agnes records prior to 1997, status rare); 7 individuals of The Gem, (status a scarce migrant); 3 Palpita vitrealis, another scarce migrant; Good numbers of The Vestal including a number that were bright pink in colour, indicating that these individuals had travelled from a hot climate. Also good numbers of White Speck and 4 Delicate, both classed as migrant species. By far the most abundant species trapped was Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella) a migrant pyralid.
The best trap was the evening of 13th -14th October when we counted 438 individuals of 33 species, not bad for October! During our week a total of 46 species were identified.
During the night of 12th October, we trapped a Red-veined Darter.
I would like to thank Neil Topliss and Dave Scattergood for all their help and assistance during the week. Some mornings it was hard to decide who had the most enthusiasm. The new Lewington Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland was invaluable. Further thanks must go to Mike Hicks of St. Agnes and Dave Grundy for help and assistance in the ID of several micro’s.
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