Over the years our small garden has done really well for moths. When we moved in we did a complete overhaul of the garden and added plants which are great for insects and other wildlife too.
We have had some fascinating moth species visit our garden and have had many new county additions, North Wales additions and even a new Welsh addition all recorded from our garden. It probably has something to do with the fact that although we live in North Wales (Queensferry), the garden sits in what is still geographically Cheshire, the plants, landscape etc are very much more aligned with that county than the rest of North Wales, and so we record some species that the rest of North Wales struggle to record (and vice versa).
So allow me to introduce a new addition to North Wales, the Leek Moth (Acrolepiopsis assectella), which I photographed on the 20th April 2022, although Lauren found it so I can not take the credit for that.
As its name suggests it is a species which likes the Allium family, and we have lots in our garden from chives and Welsh onion so some of the large ornamental types too. In large numbers this species can be a pest, but for now it is more than welcome to come and share some of my chives from our garden.
Interestingly over the border in Cheshire this moth is becoming commoner, our good friend Roger Wilkinson has recorded it in his Cheshire garden 63 times since 2014 - so this moth is probably expanding its range in to North Wales (but the first town on its way to do so....is Queensferry).
Hopefully the first of many new moth addition to our garden for 2022. I will keep you posted.
Dave