Watermead CP South 02/09/2011

Early evening on Friday, I nipped out on the bike for a quick sprint down the lane and back and realised that it was still pretty mild. I got home and checked the forecast which looked very promising, got on the phone to Adrian and we quickly arranged a very short notice foray to Watermead CP South. The plan was to set up a couple of traps and sheet around the biggest accessible clump of Butterbur (the plant) and promptly add The Butterbur (the moth) to the VC55 list. We set up 125W MV sheet, 2 x 125W MV traps and a 40W/20W actinic/CFL combo trap.

Sadly, the planned glory never materialised. The Butterbur genuinely appears to be scarce and local in and around the midlands with several apparently blank counties. More planning and gen required I think. We still had a good night though for a quick two-hour jaunt, but it wasn't the light traps that provided the biggest surprise. We'd been up and running for an hour or so and decided to have a quick patrol of the traps. En route I noticed a Sallow apparently nectaring on the 'flowerhead' of a Common Reed, and then another. We then started noticing lots more Sallows and Square-spot Rustics (50+ of each) and other species. Completely unexpected and really interesting to see - no damned camera to catch the moment sadly.

The overall total recorded was 409 of 43sp. (of which 293 of 41 were at light, 116 of 11 were nectaring on the reeds). The numbers in square brackets is the split between [light, nectaring]. Only two species new for the year - Bulrush and Large Wainscots.

0697 Agonopterix arenella 1 [0, 1]
0993 Cyclamen Tortrix (Clepsis spectrana) 3 [2, 1]
0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) 3 [2, 1]
1076 Celypha lacunana 1
1086 Hedya salicella 1
1104 Endothenia quadrimaculana 1
1138 Epinotia nisella 1
1309 Agriphila geniculea 1
1328 Schoenobius gigantella 1
1350 Beautiful China-mark (Nymphula stagnata) 6
1405 Mother of Pearl (Pleuroptya ruralis) 2
1439 Trachycera advenella 1
1764 Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) 2
1776 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria) 11
1862 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) 1
1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) 1
1914 Dusky Thorn (Ennomos fuscantaria) 1
1937 Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) 1
1956 Common Wave (Cabera exanthemata) 1
2087 Turnip Moth (Agrotis segetum) 1
2102 Flame Shoulder (Ochropleura plecta) 6
2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) 22 [17, 5]
2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) 1
2110 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua fimbriata) 1
2126 Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum) 3
2133 Six-striped Rustic (Xestia sexstrigata) 2
2134 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) 222 [172, 50]
2199 Common Wainscot (Mythimna pallens) 4
2269 Centre-barred Sallow (Atethmia centrago) 5
2274 Sallow (Xanthia icteritia) 58 [8, 50]
2297 Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) 3
2300 Old Lady (Mormo maura) 3
2306 Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) 1
2321 Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha) 1
2343x Common Rustic agg. (Mesapamea secalis agg.) 6 [5, 1]
2361 Rosy Rustic (Hydraecia micacea) 6 [3, 3]
2368 Crescent (Celaena leucostigma) 5 [4, 1]
2369 Bulrush Wainscot (Nonagria typhae) 2 [0, 2] NFY
2375 Large Wainscot (Rhizedra lutosa) 3 [2, 1] NFY
2384 Vine's Rustic (Hoplodrina ambigua) 9
2452 Red Underwing (Catocala nupta) 1
2474 Straw Dot (Rivula sericealis) 2
2477 Snout (Hypena proboscidalis) 2

Large Wainscot

Beautiful China-mark

Schoenobius gigantella

Cyclamen Tortrix

Turnip Moth

The following two Sallows illustrate perfectly how widely variable individual moths of the some species can be. If these were birds they'd have been split into five or more species by now!