Wolves wood 19th September – Worrying?

A few of us met up at Wolves wood last night to try a bit of trapping out and about. Looked promising on arrival with the temperature still at 20 degrees. 2 125w mv traps plus wine ropes deployed.
Sat down then and waited for the moths to arrive. Waited some more, nothing. Check of the wine ropes, nothing. Back to the traps, one moth in. Check of ropes, nothing again. This was the general pattern for the whole session. Gave up at about 10pm with 16sp on the list and a total of 24 moths trapped. Best moth Epinotia maculana (5 recorded) but this is a known site for the species. Brick (1), Lunar underwing (1), Large yellow underwing (1), Square-spot rustic (1) also recorded. One Plutella xylostella too. Still 17 degrees at the end of the session. This moth night did nothing to allay my concerns about moth numbers late summer/autumn this year at inland sites. Just what is going on? Surely there should have been a lot more autumnal species and even common ones like Large yellow underwing about than what we got? Yes, it was a clear sky but there should still have been moths coming in as the moon isn’t that bright at present. Is it a climatic factor that is keeping numbers high on the coast? Don’t think its habitat related as the sites where low numbers are being seen (in my experience) don’t seem to have changed much at all.
What do others think?

Neil

 

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6 Responses to Wolves wood 19th September – Worrying?

  1. keith says:

    Brian and I had a very poor night at Ashby Warren on the 13th just 27 species to 7 lights. Centre-barred Sallow the only Autumn species with one seen. Hornets plentiful especially at the sheet trap. Most common moth was Barred hook-tip with 12+. A moth we hadn’t ever seen until July at H. Hills. Will see how it goes at the Hills tonight hopefully. I think the Autumn moths will still come and are out in the warmer areas such as H. Hills and they will follow in the wooded and inland areas soon. Moths doing very well at home 2 miles inland, but also as it happens, 2 miles from Ashby Warren.

    • Mark Nowers says:

      Neil, I have been a slave to the ivy since the 20th August -I haven’t run a trap during this period. The impression I often form (and it is just an impression) is that a fresh flush of moths occurs shortly after a noticeable change in weather conditions. We have had a very long, dry and warm spell. Whilst that is often a good thing to start with, things soon start to wear out and don’t seem to be replenished. As an example, numbers of Angle Shades on ivy steadily increased to 22 and then tailed off to fewer than 5. However, I suspect that with the nights starting to cool off and after the rain on Saturday morning, autumn moths will really start to kick in.

  2. Matthew Deans says:

    At Bawdsey last night we experienced dense fog for most of the night. However, 105 species were recorded, which is not unprecedented for here in September, as 99 species were recorded a few years ago, on one of the National Moth Nights.

    One of the features of last night was the number of micros, I’m still wading through them!

  3. Raymond Watson says:

    Some thoughts. A strange year in as much as we had a good June and July then a cold August. We have been talking about getting second broods of species but I took a Clouded Buff on 18th at home and no way is that a second brood for a species whose larvae hibernate overwinter. Likewise several Pempelia palumbella on Snape Warren last night in good condition are late emergers. Near the coast the temperatures are evened out over the year owing to the presence of the sea as a heat sink. I recall the issue for August being primarily cold clear nights as well as cold days. Perhaps the impact of this is that the coastal areas were not ‘held back’ so much as further inland where night-time temperatures may have been cooler. Perhaps further inland will come into its own for the autumn species in a while.

  4. Neil says:

    I’ve had a message from Liz Cutting who was at a moth event in an Essex wood the same night we were at Wolves wood. 4 lights, sugar and wine ropes used, with the event going on a bit longer than we were out in the field at ours. She reports only around 20sp recorded, with nothing on the sugar and wine ropes at all. Temperatures remained warm with a bit of cloud cover there. Very similar results to what we had on the night.

    Neil

  5. Raymond Watson says:

    Got my first Pink-barred Sallow of the year last night. A long time after yours Neil. Also a freshly emerged Kent Black Arches which I recon is a late emerger. I am now fully into the autumn species, so if my hypothesis is correct inland sites should be there in a week or two.

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