Masters student Stuart Brooker is moth trapping in the woodlands around Durham University. Every week Stuart submits photos of his favourite moths from that week along with a small commentary.  This week was particularly interesting because one moth was difficult to identify and two moths (Small Yellow Wave and Lunar Thorn) were firsts for Stuart! These moths were trapped on 15 June, 2014. 

This week Stuart reports on his identification process "the moth I fussed about the ID of was the Dark Brocade[the last photo]. You can't see it from the photo, but the hindwings were a dark brown-grey (dusky or fuscous) with a creamy-white fringing. Some books (or at least the books I have) state that the hindwings are white - especially in the males. However, I believe that there is an aberration that has dark hindwings. That said, there were also other markings that were not quite consistent with the descriptions; but it did have hairless eyes, a double-crest on the thorax (which are also not clear in the photo), and long, narrow wings - which are consistent with descriptions - plus, it didn't really fit the description of owt else either!"

However, after posting this photo to twitter to ask for some ID help @surreymoth pointed out that this moth was probably a dark Green Arches (Anaplectoides prasina), which Stuart confirmed was correct. Being able to reach out to a large community of natural history and lepidoptera enthusiasts is one of the benefits of twitter. 

If anyone has comments on the identification of this moth or anything else about the moth trapping at Durham please contact Stuart here... 

Andrew Rogers, is a visiting researcher in our group, who recently started fieldwork in Borneo. Andrew was lucky enough to get video coverage of the Bornean bearded pig, Sus barbatus, at night using a camera trap. Andrew is working at the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Malaysian Borneo alongside researchers from Sheffield University collecting carbon data in primary and logged lowland rainforest.

Turns out photographing wildlife in primary rain forest with a 60+ meter canopy is hard work, but Andrew is gradually honing his skills and has some photographs to prove it:

Stay tuned for more Borneo updates from Andrew or follow us on twitter!

Masters student Stuart Brooker is moth trapping in the woodlands around Durham University. Every week Stuart submits photos of his favourite moths from that week along with a small commentary.  These moths are from week 4 and were caught on 8 June, 2014.  

Stuart says "the Elephant Hawkmoth is one of my all-time favourites (they get the name from the appearance of the caterpillar not the adult, in case you're wondering why it doesn't look anything like an elephant). They're pretty common, but, like foxes, Star Wars and Ricky Villa's 1981 FA Cup Final winning goal, I never tire of seeing them! I caught a pair of them, but unfortunately I photographed the slightly scruffier one! Clouded-bordered Brindle isn't hugely interesting to look at, but I got two colour morphs, which seem to be knocking about in roughly equal numbers."

Stuart is planning a public moth trapping evening in July so stay tuned for more information about that event! 

Stay tuned weekly for more Stu's Top Moths or follow us on twitter for updates and photos of moths and other wildlife around Durham University!