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Wales Moth List 2021

Cosmopterix scribaiella, Magor Marsh, George Tordoff
Cosmopterix scribaiella, Magor Marsh, George Tordoff

The number of new county records in 2021 was down on recent years, though the total of 81 new records (comprising 76 moth species) was nevertheless impressive. In 2019 and 2020 the figure was over a hundred new records each year – it may be that 2021 just wasn’t a very good year for moths.

Among these new county records, five moths were recorded new to the whole of Wales. The Oak Rustic recorded in Caldicot (Monmouthshire) was the sole macro-moth among these, the four new micro-moths being Cosmopterix scribaiella and Gelechia muscosella (both at Magor Marsh in Monmouthshire), Aroga velocella (Cardiganshire) and Eudemis porphyrana (Glamorgan – though there was an unconfirmed old record of this species from the same county). Caterpillars of the leaf-miner Cosmopterix scribaiella were found on Common Reed, confirming that this species is breeding in Wales. The other new moths may well be breeding in the country, though this has not been confirmed and it is possible that some of them were wanderers from England or further afield.

Monmouthshire had the most new moths in 2021 with 11 species, followed by Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire with 10 new species each. The spectacular Clifden Nonpareil (aka Blue Underwing) continued its recent expansion, being recorded new to Carmarthenshire and Montgomeryshire. It has now been recorded from nine of the thirteen Welsh vice-counties following the initial record in Glamorgan in 2017.

Thanks, as always, to the Wales county moth recorders for supplying details of the new moths recorded in their counties in 2021.