Kirkgunzeon Moth Trapping Day, 17th May 2025

 

SWSEIC held our fourth Kirkgunzeon village community moth trapping event in on Saturday 17th May. The village has tasted the fun and excitement of moth-trapping in previous years and as the SWSEIC office is located in the village we are delighted to keep supporting the interest of the local community and to improve our understanding of local moths.

Volunteers from around the village met on friday evening to collect moth traps loaned by the centre (more info about equipment loan here). These were hosted in their gardens, and we convened on Saturday morning at the MacMillan Memorial Hall to investigate the finds. SWSEIC staff were joined by some experienced local moth trappers who helped with identification and logging the records.

The cool overnight weather meant that the catches were modest, but they provided an interesting variety of spring moths. The only species occurring in some abundance was Small Square-spot Diarsia rubi, a very common moth. Interestingly SW Scotland is the only part of Scotland where this species has two broods — on in spring and one in late summer — like it does in England and Wales. Elsewhere in Scotland it has a single brood in mid-summer. We recorded 37 different species between the six traps. Ten species had not been recorded in the village previously, and all traps (even those with the smallest catches) caught something that had not been trapped in the village before. New species included Cabbage Moth Mamestra brassicae, Dwarf Pug Eupithecia tantillaria, Pale Prominent Pterostoma palpina and Lunar Thorn Selenia lunularia. Although none of the new species were particularly uncommon, it shows that every little helps in creating a better picture of what is living around us.

The results of the trapping can be downloaded here – Kirkgunzeon Community Moth Trapping records – May 2025)

Special thanks to volunteers Terry, Mike, Simon, John, Kim and Lewis who set traps in their gardens, and to local moth recorders Alison and Anna who helped with the moth recording.