Taking stock

The vegetation in the region of Banstead (Surrey) can best be summed up by using the following adjectives - crisped, wilted, stressed, exhausted; and the same exercise for flowers throws up spent, sparse, finished and missing. The 'fifth' heatwave across our country has done in a lot of the greenery (have you seen the colour of grass recently?) and dried out the rest to a point where a stray spark can ignite a major event. This seems to be the first year in which many people have finally climbed down off of the 'climate fence' and have started to take the whole subject more seriously. Many will climb back up on to it if we get through the remainder of the summer without further drama, especially if we have a wet autumn. Worrying times.

The hot weather has been responsible for a large number of migrant insects to appear in the UK in numbers that were previously the stuff of fantasy. A few sites have clocked up 500-1,000+ Small Mottled Willows in a single night and - remembering that fine saying 'comparison is the thief of joy' - my own modest counts are still inflated totals regardless of the insanity experienced elsewhere. Time for a round-up of the migrant moth activity recorded here in the Banstead garden so far in 2026...

June 1st - Striped Hawk-moth (second record). June 22nd - Striped Hawk-moth (third record). July 6th - Ni Moth (new species). July 7th - Small Mottled Willow (third record). July 14th - Vestal (seventh record). July 15th - the start of daily recording of Small Mottled Willow. July 17th - Cydia amplana (fifth record). July 22nd - 24th - Cydia amplana (14 individuals). August 1st - a peak of five Hummingbird Hawk-moths at various flowers, especially Abelia and Red Valerian. They have been seen daily, and in multiples, for over a month now.  August 3rd - Palpita vitrealis. August 9th - Palpate vitrealis (three, first multiple occurrence). August 12th - Bordered Straw (18th record, pictured top). August 13th - Delicate (10th record, pictured below). August 14th - peak of 16 Small Mottled Willow bringing the total so far this year to 77 individuals. It is worth mentioning that between 1987-2025 I had recorded just two!

I have not included Dark Sword-grass, SilverY, noctuella and ferrugalis in the above totals but all four species have been regularly recorded. We still have three months when we can hope to experience decent moth migration so these figures are likely to increase - and, I hope, one or two higher drawer species will be added to the experience of 2026. I would be happier in my moth recording but for the knowledge of why it is we are experiencing such unusual events.

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