National Moth Night - Balls Wood - Hertford - 11/06/16

Our fouth trip of the year saw eleven keen mother's descend on Ball's Wood for our effort for National Moth Night. The target was to be Hawk-moths of which we saw very few, in fact just one species which was Poplar Hawk-moth, 4 specimens were observed. When we all arrived the weather did not look very promising and rain put a slight dampener on the night ahead, the only saving grace was that it was cloudy, still warm at 20 degrees and still...maybe we would do ok despite the rain? Lots of lights were set-up and I myself ran four traps with different bulbs in to try and tempt different species to be attracted to them. We covered a few of the rides and made sure everything was water-proofed to avoid any accidents.

As the rain continued into the night I was confident that we would do well, famous last words I know but with the ambient temperature not expected to drop below 14 degrees it would be perfect if the rain stopped, and it did! At about 11pm the rain ceased and the moths seemed to be spurred on by this and more were arriving to the traps. We stuck it right out until the bitter end and as the time was approaching 3am we were still going through the traps! There were many superb moths found in all of the traps and several uncommon species that just aren't found in your average garden. Species such as Poplar Lutestring, Great Oak Beauty, Cream Wave, Grey Arches and Gold Swift to name but a few of the Macro's. And then there were the Micro's...there were quite a few! And I nearly ran out of pots for them all. One species in particular Choristoneura hebenstreitella, a very large Tortrix reminiscent of a bigger variety of Pandemis cerasana I don't recall seeing before, there were several to my lights. Another good moth confirmed today was Epinotia tedella, only my second example, my first one was recorded at Roughdown Common in July 2013. Other Micro's of note included a stunning Spatalistis bifasciana and plenty of the pretty Tortrix moth Ptycholoma lecheana, one example was so brightly coloured with yellow, it looked like a piece of shining gold in the trap.

All in all 152 species was pretty good considering the amount of rain we endured before it got dark leaving the vegetation soaking.

Numbers below are approximate.

Catch Report - 11/06/16 - Roughdown Common - 7x 125w MV Robinson Traps 1x 160w MBT Trap 1x 26w BLB Robinson Trap and 1x 80w Actinic & 26w CFL Bulb Suitcase Trap

Macro Moths - 89 Species

2x Angle Shades 2x Beautiful Golden-Y 1x Beautiful Hook-tip 1x Blood-vein 1x Brimstone Moth 3x Brindled White-spot 2x Broken-barred Carpet 2x Brown Rustic 1x Buff Ermine 1x Buff-tip 2x Burnished Brass 5x Clouded Border 5x Clouded Silver 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle 3x Common Marbled Carpet 5x Common Pug 25+ Common Swift 3x Common White Wave 1x Dark Arches 1x Double Square-spot 1x Dusky Brocade 2x Flame 2x Flame Shoulder 1x Foxglove Pug 5x Gold Swift 5x Great Oak Beauty 1x Grey Arches 5x Green Carpet 2x Green Silver-lines 1x Grey-pine Carpet 5x Grey Pug 2x Heart & Dart 2x Ingrailed Clay 1x Iron Prominent 2x Large Nutmeg 1x Large Yellow Underwing 1x Lesser Swallow Prominent 5x Light Brocade 10x Light Emerald 2x Lobster Moth 1x Maiden's Blush 2x Marbled Minor 6x Marbled White-spot 1x Middle-barred Minor 1x Mottled Beauty 3x Mottled Pug 2x Mottled Rustic 4x Orange Footman 10x Pale Oak Beauty 1x Pale Prominent 6x Pale Tussock 1x Peach Blossom 2x Peacock Moth 1x Pebble Prominent 1x Peppered Moth 1x Poplar Grey 1x Poplar Hawk-moth 5x Poplar Lutestring 1x Purple Bar 1x Red-necked Footman 1x Riband Wave 2x Rustic Shoulder-knot 1x Scalloped Hazel 1x Scorched Carpet 8x Scorched Wing 1x Seraphim 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character 10x Silver-ground Carpet 1x Small Angle Shades 3x Small Dotted Buff 1x Small Dusty Wave 3x Small Fan-foot 1x Small Rivulet 1x Small Square-spot 15+ Small White Wave 2x Small Yellow Wave 1x Snout 1x Spruce Carpet 5x Straw Dot 3x Swallow Prominent 2x Sycamore 2x Tawny Marbled Minor 2x Tawny-barred Angle 2x Treble Brown Spot 5x Treble Lines 4x White Ermine 1x White-pinion Spotted 1x White-spotted Pug 2x Willow Beauty 1x Yellow-barred Brindle

Micro Moths - 63 Species

Adela reaumurella 1 Aleimma loeflingiana Ancylis badiana 1 Ancylis laetana 5+ Ancylis mitterbacheriana 3 Aphomia sociella 1 Apotomis turbidana 1 Archips Podana 2 Argyresthia brockeella 3 Argyresthia goedartella 1 Argyresthia spinosella 2 Argyresthia albstria 1 Blastobasis lacticolella 2 Caloptilia alchiemiella Caloptilia robustella 1 Capua vulgana 1 Carpatolechia proximella 1 Celypha cespitana 3 Celypha lacunana 5 Choristoneura hebenstreitella 10 Cochylis molliculana 1 Cochylis nana 5 Crambus lathoniellus 5 Cryptoblabes bistriga 1 Cydia fagiglandana 8 Elachista apicipunctella 2 Elophila nymphaeata 10+ Epinotia bilunana 10+ Epinotia demarniana 10+ Epinotia nisella 1 Epinotia ramella 1 Epinotia tedella 1 Epiphyas postvittana 4 Eucosma cana 1 Eudonia lacustrata 2 Eudonia pallida 1 Hedya pruniana 10+ Hedya nubiferana 2 Lathronympha strigana 5 Monopis laevigella 1 Monopis weaverella 2 Morophaga choragella 2 Nemapogon cloacella 2 Nemophora degeerella 2 Notocelia cynosbatella 1 Notocelia trimaculana 1 Notocelia uddmanniana 2 Pandemis cerasana 10+ Pandemis cinnamomeana 1 Parapoynx stratiotata 5 Paraswammerdamia albicapitella 1 Phtheochroa inopiana 1 Plutella xylostella 50+ Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 4 Ptycholoma lecheana 4 Scoparia ambigualis 30+ Scoparia pyralella 1 Spatalistis bifasciana 1 Teleiodes luculella 10+ Tinea semifulvella 1 Tinea trinotella 1 Tortrix viridana 15+