Orfordness meeting 11th August 2018.

This meeting was re-arranged as the conditions for the 10th looked awful. Proven to be the right choice, as the regular recorders on the Ness reported an almost empty trap that night!
4 moth-ers attended this event, with some having to pull out at the last minute due to the change of date and worries about the weather conditions. It was a bit breezy out on the Ness, but not too much to stop us running traps in sheltered areas. Was a bit of rain too, again, not too much of a problem as the cloud kept the temperature up. Was a warm southerly wind too so we hoped for a few migrants and we weren’t disappointed.
10 traps deployed, covering 4 areas – the Holm oaks (an area of scrub out on the shingle), a Sallow copse (just a few scrub trees really out on the shingle too), the reedbed and around the buildings.
Not as many moths trapped as in recent visits, but it was a bit later in the season and also the recent heavy rains probably had an effect too. Still, a list of around 80 species was pretty good given the restricted habitat and conditions, with plenty of interest.
Star moth from the wow factor point of view was the pristine Convolvulus hawk in one of the building traps. Other migrants included Dark sword-grass, Nomophila noctuella and the common Silver Ys and Plutella xylostellas.
Graham Geen, a visiting recorder from Norfolk was keen to see Sandhill rustic. No problem we all said and we were proven right with over 50 seen across most of the traps including a nice pale one and a few very dark ones. Other macros of note: Ground lackey (2 males), Marbled green (2), Hedge rustic (first few for year) and Dark spinach plus Lunar yellow underwing (both very notable records for the Ness).
As is usual the micros provided more interest. Ancylosis oblitella (a good number, seen in most traps, been common on the Ness this year), Pediasia aridella, Cochylis molliculana, Caryocolum vicinella (a good number, notable as normally only seen in small numbers on the site), Argyresthia bonnetella (notable out there as there are only 2 small Hawthorn trees!), Celypha rosaceana, Acleris cristana (a good Ness record). A number of Scrobipalpas and Coleophoras were kept for later determination.

Thanks must go to the National Trust guys who helped us out with transport etc and allowing us to record on this good site. Also thanks to Mike Marsh for help with sorting our traps and allowing us to look in his trap!

Neil

Convolvulus hawk

Convolvulus hawk

 

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