Mega emargination

I managed to nip over to Huncote Embankment yesterday for a very pleasant and leisurely morning, beating the living whatsit out of hawthorn, oak and hazel and sweeping grasses and vegetation. I found quite a few nice but common beetles, bugs and moths, plus a load of larvae that I'm feeding up a bit before trying to ID. However top billing goes to a very dull brown groundbug.

Megalonotus emarginatus - a nice British tick for me

Note the pale tibia, hairy and coursely punctured pronotum - especially on the posterior. Also note the large and obvious protruding corners of the pronotum on the hind margin. What you can't notice is the large single spine on the underside of the front femora, with a few much smaller and less obvious spines. Not without looking anyway.

I also had a weevil tick, Ceutorhynchus obstrictus, but that was too small and mobile for me to get a shot. Unlike this round motionless blob which was the least common ladybird that plopped out of the many beaten hawthorns ....

Pine Ladybird

The garden trap was a little busier last night, though the biggest excitement came when I turned an egg tray and just about jumped out of my skin as I'd just about poked a massive female Hornet. Hornets are regular and just about bearable 'mothing villains' (another old thread) if you're trapping in decent woodland or other suitable habitat where you might expect the odd one. I have had a couple of occasions where a trap was fizzing with masses of them which is quite scary. But, in 20 years of garden trapping this is the first one here - and I hope it's not a forbearer of more regular visits!

Other more regular moth trap fare were ...

Garden Carpet

Nutmeg - a much browner individual than I usually see. I think. I may have forgotten.

Scalloped Hazel

The art of out-of-garden mothing

In anticipation of getting out and about, I'd ordered some replacement 40W actinic tubes from Watkins and Doncaster to repair my actinic/tungsten trap. I ordered them on Wednesday night and they arrived on Saturday morning (remember Friday was a holiday for some reason or other) - superb service. So on Saturday I set about refurbishing all of my traps including the big uns. Here are the various lights I use ..

Clockwise from top left: 250W MV (lighthouse), 250W Metal Halide (eye cancer light), 80W actinic / 100W tungsten combo (newly repaired), 125W MV (x4 traps), 160W blended (choke-less alternative)

Having sorted the traps, the weather on Saturday was warm sunshine, almost cloudless, bone dry, blistering north-easterly. The weather yesterday (and today for that matter) is like a stuck record. In mothing terms, the weather is pants. However I have long held a theory that irrespective of the conditions, if you go to where the moths are you will catch something. With this in mind, I managed to tempt Adrian out on a foolhardy excursion to the best bit of woodland in VC55 - Pickworth Great Wood. This is a long way to go (right in the north-east of the county on the border with Lincs.) and if you are going that far you may aswell load up with as much as you can and make a real go of it by staying overnight. Some would suggest that doing this on a night when the conditions are pants is plain daft. They may be right.

A half-loaded Vectra estate - 8 traps, 3 gennies, 6 cable reels, 2 petrol cannisters, 2 x 250W choke assys, box of pots, net handle, loads of wasted space that could have been filled with more traps and cable if I had any and a tripod light/gear if Adrian wasn't taking his. The footwells and passenger seat are utilised for essentials like cameras and i-Pod, and non-essentials, like clothes, bedding, food and drink. All that remains to go into the back is a pasting table - you'll see later. Adrian's Discovery was simlarly loaded.

Having arrived at the trapping site, and before deploying kit, ensure you have selected a suitable base for the night and for collating and emptying the traps in the morning. Get on with the task in hand (put the lights on) and then get your bed sorted. Happily, the now empty Vectra is long enough to sleep in and a damned site warmer than a tent at this time of year.

Sit around a tripod light having a natter and potting the odd moth, and occasionally patrol the traps before topping up the gennies and getting some shut-eye. Set your alarm for dawn. ish. Now the hardest work of the whole venture. Gathering up the traps to a central point, reeling in the cables and bring back the gennies. If you've chosen the site well with decent tracks and rides, you will make this easier by packing up your bedding and using the again-empty car to transport everything back.

Gather the traps to a cool shady spot pending emptying. This is 9 of the 12 traps we ran in total last night.

After the hard work comes the prize - leisurely emptying lots of traps in the early morning light with nothing going on except the dawn chorus. Tawny Owls still calling this morning, Cuckoo singing in a cleared bit of the wood, Great Spotteds drumming and calling constantly, plus an array of common warblers, thrushes and tits.

This is what the pasting table is for - a very convenient trap emptying station with room for pots and cups of coffee.

Cups of coffee? Where do you get that in the middle of woodland. And what about some breakfast ....

After plenty of coffee (or tea as I had this morning), and some smashing bacon baps, the trap-emptying sadly comes to an end. No more anticipation of what could be lurking on the next egg box. Mind you, also no more chances of inadvertently putting your fingers on one of these ....

Massive queen Hornet with a Muslin Moth in the same cavity for comparison.

Now comes another chance to utilise your surroundings to best effect. If you are in woodland, there should be plenty of photographic props around. If you have used the Forestry woodyard as your base the opportunities are increased.

Lots of props

Make use of that table again. Might aswell fire up a gennie to power the macro light for the camera whilst I'm at it.

Prop in use

As for the catch - well, I'll summarise that later but suffice to say the theory held out. Just about. Definitely a night of quality over quantity, with some great moths (in a VC55 context) but few individuals vs the effort.

Here's a couple of flowers from the wood ..

Water Avens

Ramsons

Super Cat & Hornet Horror .....

Not long back home after a very succesful mothing venture to Hazleborough Forest in Northants with Keith Tailby. More on the results and photos of goodies tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a couple of snaps. Keith spotted this Elephant Hawk-moth on Greater? Willowherb - superb caterpillar with very odd posture when disturbed. Almost immediately after dark, we were inundated with one of the most feared mothing villains - Hornets ... Those at the sheet were potted up to save our sanity, but of the five traps at least two were so full of them that we knocked the light off and left them to evacuate before we sorted out the contents. All potted Hornets were released unharmed, and thankfully we avoided a stinging! Nasty when riled by very bright UV light at night.

Mothing don't half give me the Horn(et)

As I'm sure Derek & Clive would say.

One of the risks of moth trapping in prime broad-leaved woodland is Hornets, especially in the late summer / autumn. They are normally pretty easy going and much less likely to give you a sting (or bite!) than a wasp. Trouble is, once they have been disturbed/attracted by the light then they go fucking bonkers! Apart from that problem, they are also pretty good at eating the contents of a trap.

Having said that, they are damned impressive insects. We managed to pick up a couple at Pickworth Great Wood, and one of these was the biggest I've ever seen being - almost an inch and a half - presumably a queen.


Hornet - superb insect, unless you stick your thumb on it when grabbing an egg tray from the trap!


"I fancy a Peppered Moth for breakfast"