With the weather forecast stating that this night was going to be warm and humid, thoughts of a good night’s trapping were in my mind on the way to the site. Things felt very different on arrival however, as there was a clear sky, cool breeze blowing and it felt a bit cold!
A few of us met up early to search the meadows for the micro moth Commophila aeneana which was seen and photographed at this site last year. It is a daytime/dusk flier that rests on the food plant, Ragwort. Unfortunately the Ragwort wasn’t in flower so we didn’t have any success locating the moth. Did find a few other species flying, most interesting being Cochylis molliculana, Aethes tesserana, Euleioptilus carphodactyla and Epiblema costipunctana.
3 Mv traps plus an actinic were run in the meadow plus another mv over a sheet was run in the young woodland. Moths trickled in slowly as we sat shivering round the sheet quickly drinking our warm tea/coffee! Walking round the traps a couple of times managed to add more species before we decided to pack up at around midnight. Species total on my list 69sp. Macro of the night probably Pretty chalk carpet, others of note: Figure of eighty, Dotted fan-foot, Pale-shouldered brocade and Sloe pug. Micros: more Cochylis molliculana, Argyresthia curvella, Phlyctaenia perlucidalis and Metzneria metzneriella.
Neil