The forecast for Friday evening was for the temperature to hold up around 7 deg. By the time I’d set the traps up at Gillingham Thicks it had already fallen to 5 deg. so I wasn’t expecting very much to come to the lights. But the moths came in a steady flow mostly Orthosias and especially Small Quaker (70+). Some new ones for the year for me were Brindled Pug, Red Chestnut and Small Brindled Beauty which seems to be a common moth down Ipswich area but is infrequent up here in the Waveney Valley, just the odd one or two each year. By 9.30 pm, around 150 moths of 15 species had been recorded. I was quite happy with that on a chilly moonlit evening. See you at the indoor meeting.
Brian
Hope the SMG meeting went well. I was away for the day learning sawfly ID. I am interested in any Nepticulidae you may catch in your site that has established aspen (is it in Suffolk or Norfolk?). I have no idea if you ‘bother’ to take any that you catch but if you do I would be very interested in identifying them if you were agreeable.
I’ll see what I can do Raymond. The manager is keen to know what insect species are present on the estate.
Yes we had a very enjoyable and informative meeting with many excellent photographic contributions.