Autumnal moths

After a generally crap August, early September mothing kicked off with a great session over at Warren Hills on Saturday night with Adrian Russell. The total catch from a sheet, two traps and a bit of sugaring was a very respectable 368 of 46 species. No sign of the hoped-for Heath Rustic, but a very enjoyable few hours nonetheless. I'll post the last separately with a garden trapping update, but aside from a knackered Galium Carpet, these were the main highlights:

Grey Chi

Autumnal Rustic

Narrow-winged Pug

Hedge Rustic

Antler Moth

Black Rustic

Small Wainscot

Dark Sword-grass

Sallow

Dungeness - NMN 19/09/2009

Dungeness - if it's shingle, sallow scrub or radiation you want then this is the place to go! We ran our traps around the long pits area: The long pits are immediately north of the nuclear power station We ran traps roughly within the yellow boundary - all shingly sallow scrub When we arrived in the afternoon, it was warm and sunny with a light breeze and cloudless sky. Very nice, but not very good prospects for mothing. The trapping sites looked like this: Shingle with sallow scrub Shingle and nuclear power Shingle Sallow scrub and shingle It took a good two hours to deploy everything, but we were ready in good time to light up just before dusk. As soon as everything was running, me and Adrian headed over to The Pilot for a very welcome couple of pints and to get some really good fish n chips to take out. Considering the location, the pub was absolutely rammed with locals having a meal out. The food was on the high end of pub meal prices, but it was excellent. Shortly after the beer and fish, we set out on a lengthy tour around the traps. We were obviously hoping to pick up some decent migrants, but I think honest expectations were more realistic and especially so when we'd seen that Square-spot Rustic was likely to be the commonest moth of the night. Another tour seemed to confirm that it was slow-going, though we did start to see a couple of good species. The gennies were topped up and we called it a night early to leave the traps running and get dawn start to empty them and redo all the hard work in reverse. The list is still being compiled, but despite the lack of exciting migrants it is going to be a very respectable total both in terms of species and numbers for the time of year (over 1500 of 70sp). Main highlights for me were a macro and pyralid tick: Dark Spectacle - one I haven't seen as it's a very scarce moth in VC55 Cynaeda dentalis - a Dungeness speciality that should be over by now, really pleased to see this Next up on the highlight stakes were five species I've seen before but a good while ago: L-album Wainscot - superb smart moth Feathered Brindle - quite a few of these in all variations Feathered Ranunculus - sadly a worn individual Four-spotted Footman - a non-spotted male Yellow Belle Amongst the remainder were: A reddy-brown Pearly Underwing Lots of really smart fresh Autumnal Rustic An oddly coloured Knot Grass A few good micros being worked on at the moment, more images and detail on how the list is shaping up to come.

National Moth Nights 2009

Well - we certainly made the effort both locally and afar. True to form the NMN jinx struck and we had two nights with less than ideal weather conditions (either clear, still and cold or clear and wind from wrong direction). On Friday night, we (me, Adrian Russell & Keith Tailby) ran a sheet and 3 traps at Warren Hills and 6 traps at Charnwood Lodge. We had very little to show for this effort, in fact the only highlight for me was a good showing of Flounced Chestnuts allowing me to get photos (have seen it before but a long while ago before I had a digital camera). Here's a montage - click for a bigger one. Flounced Chestnut - even the underside is nice Otherwise the usual fare, in small numbers. Even the super 250W metal halide trap was largely empty. 250W metal halide trap Bright white light at dusk Autumnal Rustic The only thing remotely interesting from my garden traps was this .. Brindled Green Full details to follow once lists have been collated, checked and confirmed as small. Yesterday we drove down to Dungeness to run lots of traps around the long pits area. We ran 20 in total (yes 20). The 20 traps, 9 generators, c20 cable reels and all other paraphernalia, including four blokes, got there in two Vectra estates - cavernous! We were obviously hopeful of some decent immigration but no joy. In fact the 20 traps were not exactly bulging although it was still a very enjoyable night. A few good species (as in ones we don't get here in VC55) which I'll expand on once I've got some photos and lists sorted.

Charnwood Lodge - 29/08/2008

After a week of heavy numbers in the garden, and with conditions looking as good as or better than previous nights, I decided to leave trap running around the open grasslands at the entrance to Charnwood Lodge. I placed traps up on the bomb rocks and along the dry stone wall, hoping that the gennie would run all night and the cattle wouldn't shit on everything. My only targets as such were late summer noctuids associated with this habitat, and species I'm unlikely to see in the garden. Arriving back in the morning I was pleased to see traps still in situ and devoid of sloppy pats, and the gennie was still running. In fact, by the time I switched it off the gennie had run 3 x 125W MV traps along with 200M of cable for 10.5 hours! The catch was pretty good in terms of range of species, but surprisingly low on numbers considering the 500+ I'd had a few times in the garden. Total catch 536 of 63sp. Main highlights were: Brown-dotted Clothes Moth (Niditinea fuscella) 1 (county tick for me) Teleiopsis diffinis 14 Galium Carpet (Epirrhoe galiata) 1 Autumnal Rustic (Eugnorisma glareosa) 9 True Lover's Knot (Lycophotia porphyrea) 1 Antler Moth (Cerapteryx graminis) 25 Hedge Rustic (Tholera cespitis) 22 Grey Chi (Antitype chi) 1 Angle-striped Sallow (Enargia paleacea) 2 Gold Spot (Plusia festucae) 11 Only expected species I missed was Feathered Gothic, and no sign of hoped-for enigmas Neglected Rustic and Golden-rod Brindle. Angle-striped Sallow - a Nationally Scarce species, one of VC55s specialities Autumnal Rustic - I think these are smart, a Charnwood speciality True Lover's Knot - a heather feeder, no idea where the name comes from Galium Carpet Grey Chi Hedge Rustic Antler Sallow - normal form, compare to the one from my garden