Spring 2017 - the moths are (on their) back(s) !

14 March 2017
A short blast of hot tropical air from the south yesterday had daytime temperatures rocketing up to 29°C by mid afternoon in the more inland parts of the New Territories, Hong Kong. Humidity was pretty high, too, up to 90% r.h., so it felt more like May than mid March. By dusk it was still 23°C, so I put the moth trap out on the roof for the night. At 20:30 hrs, there was quite a lot of activity, with several species of note. However, I shut down the trap at 01:00 as a cold front had started to chill things down and there was no more activity. In all, around 150 photos of about 60 species to sort out. As I write this, it is now 11:45, there is a "strong monsoon signal" in effect - the temperature has further dropped, to just 17°C and it's raining, windy, with very low cloud and leaden skies. Not mothing tonight!

Prettiest moth of the night - the small glossy white crambid Pseudargyria interuptella (not winning a prize for easily pronounced name, though!) - probably make a good cuddly toy if you magnify it 100x !

"Rarest" moth of the night - probably an undescribed Hypenagonia sp. (Erebidae, Boletobiinae, Aventiinae)

Most satisfying pic of the night - the aforementioned P. interuptella and a reasonable effort to illustrate a pale form of the diamond-back moth (Plutella xylostella; Plutellidae).

Dumbest moth of the night - has to be this individual of Mocis undata, which landed on its back at least two times.

All species recorded will be put on iNaturalist (eventually) and added to the Hong Kong Moths Recording Project

Posted on March 14, 2017 01:53 PM by hkmoths