End of mothing apathy

I haven’t felt very inspired to put out the traps at home or elsewhere since the end of July. Following the running of just one trap on the 15th of October when the bulb blew I hadn’t even bothered to get the ladders out to get down the spare bulb from the barn loft to be able to run a full compliment of 4 traps. It wasn’t until the 26th running two traps that I perked up a bit with a Scarce-bordered Straw captured. On the 30th 5 Rusty-dot Pearl would have been my best ever nights total for the species but these were just at the conservatory windows! A further 18 in the three moth traps with 3 Rush Veneer, my first Dark Sword-grass of the year and a Pale Pinion were among the 18 species. This inspired me to get out that bulb and run 4 lights the following night but a different night completely with only 10 species to the traps.

A further boost came when Jon Clifton examined four micros that Brian took over to him for gen det. Unfortunately we do not have S. laricana as the specimen I retained from Ashby Warren proved to be another male oscellana. The only oscellana taken have been this dark form on the Somerleyton Estate. Caryocolum fraternella was taken with Brian at Herringfleet Hills on 18 July. Monochroa lucidella a moth recorded about once a year in Norfolk was taken at home on 25 July, actually four were recorded that night and a further one a few nights later (no idea what they were at the time). Finally again at Herringfleet Hills on 20 September Epinotia sordidana confirmed, we had at least two that night.

Herringfleet Hills continues to be the best site on the estate and was a little neglected this year with only 3 visits to date, each turning up scarce or rare micros.

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