I had a pleasant surpirse on Sunday 19th July. I went in to the spare bedroom and found a small moth on the outside. I managed to reach outside to see what it was, I was expecting one of the familiar moths we have been catching in the moth trap but it was something I did not recognise. It was also a surprise as we have not had the moth trap on for a few days, so it had decided to rest there by chance.
After checking the books I concluded it was Small Ranunculus (Hecatera dysodea), but this is a species that was formerly extinct in the UK. It began re-colonising the UK in the 90's and has since spread North and West but when I checked the North Wales moth website there were no records for it.
I sent the image of moth off to the county recorder and a few others who all confirmed it, it is a rather distincitve moth with the yellow/gold flecks through a mostly black and white moth. So this would seem to be the first record for North Wales, and purely by chance, it goes to show you never know what is to be found, even on your own doorstep.
