Last night, for the first time in well over a year thanks to [lack of] health etc, I ventured out with traps into woodland. I headed to Gisborne's Gorse, what is essentially mixed woodland within the Charnwood Lodge LRWT reserve. It's not 'real' woodland though, it was created in the late 19th century and part of it is more like a large-scale landscaped garden (there are a couple of old houses within the planted area). With such a long hiatus, it meant it was also the first time my 'new' car has been loaded up with traps. I've had it [Cupra Born EV] since Jan 2024, and the x3 traps, gennie and cable reels easily fitted in though I had folded the seats down just in case.
I had no great expectations for the night, although I had a couple of hoped-for species. I was only intending to run the traps for three hours or so - no point going overboard so early in the season.
And so it was that I lit up around 18:15, and ran the traps until packing the last one around 21:45. There were still moths coming in to the traps and it was still c7°C at that time, but I wasn't seeing any increasing diversity. I'm sure if I'd run for longer I would have had more Noctuids and maybe one or two more species, but the eventual total was 204 of 18sp. which is pretty fair for this early in March.
The couple of hoped-for species were Spring Usher which I'd not seen since 2012, and Yellow Horned that I'd not seen since 2013. Mottled Grey was also on the radar, though I was sure I was too early for that. No sign of any Spring Usher to the traps though, quite possibly too late this year. But Yellow Horned was bang on, I ended up with x51 of them and all box-fresh. Other highest counts were x42 March Moth and x36 Oak Beauty.
Given the abundance of fallen and felled wood alongside the track, I opted to photograph a few whilst out using the ever-reliable TG-6 and light guide. Smaller micros came home though, including a couple for dissection.
Yellow Horned
Engrailed
Satellite
Tortricodes alternella
Oak Beauty
March Moth
Pale Brindled Beauty
Brindled Pug
The only surprise as such was not the species, but the context. This female Dotted Border was sat on top of one of the traps basking in the glow of the light. The trap was not directly underneath the canopy, so the only way it could be there would be being 'flown in' whilst in-cop with a male or simply walking towards the light and crawling up. Given I only saw one male Dotted Border, and that it was in a different trap, the latter explanation seems more likely but of course it's a guess.
Dotted Border
Not too many micros aside from several T. alternella.
Ypsolopha ustella
Agonopterix ocellana
Acleris ferrugana/notana [dissection pending]
In compiling this post, I've reminded myself what an absolute pain in the arse it is to keep editing image sizes etc on Blogger. I think I'd realised this before and stuck to uploading at 'view size' only, but Bluesky seems to screw images up that are not already sized up. So going forward, it's going to be quicker and less of a pfaff to just save the images in two sizes. It will mean that anything on here will revert to what you see is what you get - no bigger image when you click on one.
I imagine one or two read the blog title and were delighted horrified that I might include a Coldplay track. Fear not.
It's not often that a moth makes me jump and shout/swear, but believe me this one did ..
Red Sword-grass!!!!
Only the third modern record for VC55, completely unexpected and by far the highlight of a short trapping session at Pickworth Great Wood. Needless to say, it's the first one I've ever seen.
I ran 3 x 125W MV traps and the 80W actinic from 18:30 - 21:00. Temps started at 8.5°C, dropping to 7°C , and it was mainly cloudy, still and dry. The first hour was relatively busy but it soon steadied and by the time I packed up only the odd new moth appeared. The Red Sword-grass was picked up within the first half-hour - had this not of happened I may well have given it another hour but I reckoned I'd used all my luck for the night.
The actual target species for the night was Small Brindled Beauty - still a rare species in VC55 though now well established at PGW. Otherwise I was just hoping to pick up a few late winter / early spring species.
Total catch was 191 of 18sp.
0461 Ypsolopha ustella 10
688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
1025 Tortricodes alternella 61
1044x Acleris ferrugana/notana 2
1659 Yellow Horned (Achlya flavicornis galbanus) 26
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 1
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 4
1925 Small Brindled Beauty (Apocheima hispidaria) 19
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 14
1930 Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) 2
1932 Spring Usher (Agriopis leucophaearia) 4
1934 Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria) 6
1947 Engrailed (Ectropis bistortata) 4
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 4
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 12
2241 Red Sword-grass (Xylena vetusta) 1
2256 Satellite (Eupsilia transversa) 28
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 1
Small Brindled BeautyYpsolopha ustellaSpring UsherSpring Usher
