Moth night at Chalk Lane, Kings Forest 16th July 2016 – A potential record-breaker!

With good trapping conditions forecast a meeting was hastily arranged to survey along Chalk Lane in the Kings Forest. We did try to trap this site at the same time last year but it was rained off. The promising conditions tempted out a good number of people too, with 9 people attending. 11 traps deployed among the good breck grassland habitat along the forest rides. First in were lots of flying ants, so we kept a distance away from the traps to start with. A few Nightjar entertained us giving great views over the trapping area at this time too.
Moths soon started pouring in and this continued throughout the night till daybreak. This was one of those ‘classic’ nights you always hope for but are so rare in a British summer! After such a poor year it was such a lift to see so many moths about. Late summer species mixed in with earlier summer species, a reflection on the stop start season this year. This meant a big list was amassed – unofficially at the moment it stands at 301sp in my notebook but there could be more to add as some may have been missed. This is higher I believe than our Barnhamcross common total from a few years ago that was just under 300sp.
With such a large list there were many highlights, so I’ll list just a few. Moth of the night was the single Horehound plume Wheeleria spilodactylus, a new species to most people attending, found on Tony’s shirt! Others: Marbled clover (target moth for the night), Red-necked footman, Brown scallop, Royal mantle (a few), Clouded magpie, Fern, Archips oporana, Assara terebrella (a few), Blackneck (a few), Capperia britanniodactyla, Anania verbascalis, Wood carpet, Ptycholomoides aeriferanus, Acompsia cinerella, Vitula biviella, Kent black arches (good inland record), Satin beauty, Pretty chalk carpet, Suspected, Toadflax pug. I’ve also got probable specimens of Coleophora tricolor and Caloptilia hemidactylella that await final confirmation. As others have listed, there was a huge number of beetles coming to the lights as well, some of which made their way inside people’s clothing as well as hiding under the traps!

Neil

Stop press: I had missed a few species off my list that others have informed me about so the total now stands at 306.

Marbled clover

Marbled clover

Wood carpet

Wood carpet

Royal mantle

Royal mantle

Blackneck

Blackneck

Ptycholomoides aeriferanus

Ptycholomoides aeriferanus

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