Inland migrant moths

For the inland moth trapper the chance of recording a scarce migrant moth is much higher than an inland birder recording a scarce migrant bird. I like to think of Vestals, Bordered Straws and Delicates as the lepidopteran equivalent of Yellow-browed Warblers, Red-backed Shrikes and Wrynecks - maybe not quite equals but I'm sure you get my drift. The latest heatwave has managed to send some more migrant moths to my modest inland garden in Surrey, with the first record of Ni Moth (pictured) plus two Small Mottled Willows - and on the back of two Striped Hawk-moths so far this year (plus a good few months of possible action to come) 2026 is turning out to be a decent year for continental wanderers.

I have been recording the moths here in Banstead since 1987 and thought it a worthwhile exercise to tot up all of the migrant species that have come my way. I left out the much commoner species, such as noctuella, ferrugalis, and Silver Y, plus a few others that may have been pure migrants when I first recorded them but have become established since:

Humming-bird Hawk-moth (annual in small numbers)

Striped Hawk-moth (3)

Blair's Mocha (1)

Vestal (6)

Gem (1)

Rannoch Looper (4)

Clifden Nonpareil (1)

Bordered Straw (17)

Scarce Bordered Straw (10)

Small Mottled Willow (4)

Delicate (9)

Ni Moth (1)

gilvata (1)

vitrealis (18 - possibly established?)

polychromella (1)

recurvalis (1)

amplana (4)

I'd rather not think that the above total (39 years of effort) could be replicated in a single year at a garden positioned on the south coast! What next? Small Marbled would be my guess.

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