Moth night photos

It was a pleasant night with a low of 15 degrees - five of us turned out all armed with pots and nets :-)
The moths showed up in force with many new species recorded for the reserve. The list stand at over 180 species for this year alone.

Scallop Shell is always a crowd pleaser - one of two

Two of these in the trap last thing were taken for ID - Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet

This Small China-mark was near the top of my wants list. The larvae are semi-aquatic, feeding on duckweed (Lemna spp.). They build floating cases made from fragments of the foodplant. Perhaps there is a colony in the nearby wheel wash ponds?

It's always special to find new Pyralids so this fresh looking Acrobasis advenella was a nice surprise.

Scanning the contents of the trap in the pre-dawn gloom I found a couple of these with moth-like markings but they were tiny - c3mm. After a couple of photos I soon realised the hairy forewings were not mothly at all - a caddisfly species perhaps?

And finally one for all you leaf mining enthusiasts out there (?). I found a slightly more elongated mine on oak than usual on my last visit to North Loop on July 5th. I took it home to rear through and a couple of days ago this little star popped out - Phyllonorycter lautella, one of the less common oak feeding phyllos :-)