No light required

Its important to remember that the naturalists of the past had no bright lights to attract moths but they still managed to study them using a host of other methods. Among those is the dark art of sugaring, which involves putting out irresistable concoctions generally involving alcoholic, sweet and aromatic substances.

I use dark mollasses dissolved in cheap red wine with a dash of dark rum added at the last minute. I soak strips of absorbent material in the mixture and hang them in a dark part of the garden. As well as the recent Old Lady (Mormo maura) The Herald is another moth I hardly ever get at lights but is at the wine rags every time I use them.

14 moths of 9 species
0977 Large Fruit-tree Tortrix (Archips podana) 1
1424 Endotricha flammealis 1
1713 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata) ab. remutata 1
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 1
2160 Bright-line Brown-eye (Lacanobia oleracea) 1
2321 Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha) 3
2343x Common Rustic agg. (Mesapamea secalis agg.) 2
2441 Silver Y (Autographa gamma) 2
2469 The Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix) 2

The Herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix)


Nikon Coolpix 995