Waved Black, Wymondham, 12 August 2015 (Photo: E. Parnell)

I started using a moth trap last June – a simple harmless light positioned above a wooden box, which attracts moths at night and then holds them until I check the box the following morning. Since then, with only occasional use, I’ve caught more than 150 species of the larger macromoths, as well as almost 50 of the trickier-to-identify micromoths. The undoubted highlight in terms of rarity though has been a small, dark moth: the Waved Black.

I first caught one of these black and yellow moths on 12 August 2015. Initially, I assumed it must be something common that I was unfamiliar with (most species at that point, and probably still now!), but searching through my field guide it took me ages to find this rather butterfly-like creature. There it was though, Waved Black (Parascotia fuliginaria). Looking it up on the excellent Norfolk Moths website, I was surprised to note that at that point there had only been around 25 records in Norfolk of this species, which is largely confined to an area around London, Essex and the Home Counties, with an outlying population around the Severn Estuary.

12 July 2016 (Photo: E. Parnell)

Fast forward to July 2016, when I noticed another little black moth resting in the back of my trap while emptying the catch from the evening of the 12th; this time I knew instantly what it was. Two night later on the 14 July, I caught another slightly differently marked individual and received my first moth ‘twitchers’, as various other Norfolk moth-ers (‘moth-ers’, not ‘mothers’!), including James Lowen (visit his excellent wildlife blog), came to take a look.

Waved Black, Wymondham, 4 August 2016 (Photo: E. Parnell)

Finally, on 4 August, I caught another individual, attracting another wave of visitors to look at this scarce little moth. The fact that the species has occurred two years running in my garden suggests that these aren’t migrants, but part of a small population probably occurring in the sallows/wet woodland that border my garden. Incredibly, the area seems to be the Norfolk hotspot for the species! Hopefully, however, having now made that bold claim, the August individual won’t turn out to be the last garden record that I have…