Brian and I went to Ashby Warren on the night of the 11th. A site that keeps coming up with surprise finds, it has become a case of expecting the unexpected. No cloud cover on the night but warm air so not too much concern there. One of my traps was alive with visiting moths from switch on and this was the trap that had our star moth, my first first for Suffolk. It was a bit troublesome to pot, the tiny micro pots are great if the moth is still but this wasn’t and took a while to catch. We both felt it was an exciting one that we hadn’t seen before and both flicked through our field guide to micro moths and came up with the same one. I was first to the information page and informed Brian that it doesn’t appear to be shown in East Anglia. Further searching online at home in the morning only pointed towards confirmation that it was indeed Triaxomera fulvimitrella. The moth feeds on Bracket fungi associated with Oak and Beech.
Officially as yet Tony has only had a quick look at the photo and not cleared our id but has said it looks good at this stage. Jon and Neil have agreed with the id, thank you both.
Around 70 species recorded on the night. Larch Pug was new for us too. We also had Lobesia reliquana, C. fagiglandana, S. weirana. First Buff-tips and Green Silver-lines of the season and a huge number of Bordered Whites which accounted for about half the moths seen.
Last night I set up in the rain at Blocka Carr. It got dark so early it wasn’t safe to place some of the traps due to the dodgy ground. Unfortunately the rain was prolonged enough to put off many moths and therefore me too and I was packed up and leaving the site at midnight. Still generally worth the effort on such nights as they can turn out to be some of the best nights of all.
Nice catch of Triaxomera fulvimitrella it is one of the group that I call ‘little runners’. They are a pain to catch!