13th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, Hertfordshire 13th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, Hertfordshire I am not sure if it was the phenomenally hot day on Saturday, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, or the fact that this trip was to one of the county hot-spots for all things ecological, but we did have a staggering 27 people turn up for the Herts Moth Group trip to Broxbourne Wood National Nature Reserve on 13th July 2013. The West Car Park was completely filled; at one point a police car nosed in, looked, probably thought we were a bunch of weirdos and immediately drove off having turned on his blue lights! In addition to myself, five other people had brought traps and so, as darkness approached, we made use of the fact that the wood has a long and straight ride up the middle; traps were loaded into my Landrover and dropped off at intervals along the ride where they were set up by their owners. In all we ended up with 10 lights here, stretched over a linear distance of 700 metres but, of course, dipping into the sides and various clearings. I confess that I was rather lazy and only one of these (the furthest from the car park) was mine, but as it turned out we really did not need the other five I had in the vehicle. Once these lights were fired up, I also set up a sheet on the side of the Landrover in the West Car Park. People were then free to wander along the trap line and/or stay at the sheet and see what came in. Almost immediately, the moths started coming and they were still coming as the last four of us packed up the last trap at just after 3 am (most people having left in stages between midnight and about 2 am). I am pretty sure that if we had stayed another hour until daybreak we could easily have added a dozen or more further species to the list, but as it is we had to make do with a total of 208 moth species! Very recently, I was moaning that “hundred nights” were a thing of the past (and of course, when moth-ers talk of “hundred nights” they mean 100 macros). Well … our macro total on Saturday night was 116 species. The astute will realise that this means we had 92 species of micro, but to my knowledge there are at least 3 further species awaiting dissection and it is possible that when this list appears that someone will e-mail me with others that I have overlooked. There are some rather “good” moths for Hertfordshire in the list – use the Herts Moth Book (or if you are under 50, the web site) to look them up. In number order, I might perhaps suggest you look up, amongst others, 397: Glyphipterix thrasonella (rare in the county); 1088: Pseudosciaphila branderiana (very local); 1449: Elegia similella (nationally scarce); 1494: Capperia britanniodactyla (last recorded in the county at this site); 1771a: Thera cupressata Cypress Carpet (recent colonist – first county record was in 2006); 1943: Hypomecis roboraria Great Oak Beauty (extremely local – we had several in the traps and at the sheet); 2039: Atolmis rubricollis Red-necked Footman (almost certainly part of the recent immigration – we had 6). Two species, in the form of 0926: Phalonidia manniana and 1375: Ostrinia nubilalis have recently been split into two species each – we have retained specimens but not yet looked at these critically. It was good to have both Aethes cnicana and Aethes rubigana so they could be compared and there were other species pairs too, which made the evening informative as well as fun (e.g., Clouded Brindle and Clouded Bordered-brindle). Happily, the numbers of individuals of each species appear to have resumed a near normal setting, although there were singles of just a few species. There were several Satin Beauties, mostly in my trap at the far end of the line and at the end of the session around 2.30 am. Here too, I am told by others, Violet Ground Beetles (Carabus violaceus) were making off with large numbers of Leopard Moths that had not made it all the way to the safety of the trap! Good numbers of Great Oak Beauty emphasise the nature of the woodland habitat at Broxbourne. Those marked with an asterisk (*) have been named by genitalia dissection. Thanks to all the trap operators who gave me lists of moths from their traps throughout the course of the evening. Please tell me if I missed anything. C.W.Plant Below I have listed the species that were present in my traps. As the group was spread out, my traps got different species to what the others got, the best species by far were 2 scarce Map-winged Swifts that came to the Actinic. Also the rare micros wee very pleasing to see in my traps. 12/07/13 – Broxbourne Woods - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap run from 9.45pm until 3.00am Ghost Moth Map-winged Swift Tischeria ekebladella Leopard Moth Caloptilia alchimiella Argyresthia goedartella Scythropia crataegella Yponomeuta evonymella Paraswammerdamia nebulella [NEW!] Cedestis gysseleniella [NEW!] Prays fraxinella Plutella xylostella Ypsolopha ustella Coleophora flavipennella Batia unitella Carcina quercana Pseudatemelia flavifrontella [NEW!] Parachronistis albiceps [NEW!] Teleiodes vulgella Teleiodes luculella Blastodacna hellerella Phalonidia manniana Agapeta hamana Aethes cnicana Cochylis atricapitana Pandemis cerasana Pandemis heparana Archips podana Archips xylosteana Lozotaeniodes formosanus Epagoge grotiana Ditula angustiorana Pseudargyrotoza conwagana Cnephasia asseclana* Aleimma loeflingiana Tortrix viridana Spatalistis bifasciana [NEW!] Celypha lacunana Hedya pruniana Hedya nubiferana Hedya salicella Apotomis turbidana Ancylis achatana Zeiraphera isertana Epiblema uddmanniana Eucosma cana Eucosma obumbratana Spilonota ocellana Rhyacionia pinivorana Chrysoteuchia culmella Crambus lathoniellus Catoptria pinella Dipleurina lacustrata Eurrhypara hortulata Perinephela lancealis Udea prunalis Udea olivalis Endotricha flammealis Phycita roborella Ephestia parasitella Capperia britanniodactyla [NEW!] Pterophorus pentadactyla Adaina microdactyla Drinker Pebble Hook-tip Peach Blossom Buff Arches Figure of Eighty Blotched Emerald Common Emerald Clay Triple-lines Blood-vein Least Carpet Small Fan-footed Wave Treble Brown Spot Riband Wave Silver-ground Carpet Common Carpet Barred Straw Common Marbled Carpet Barred Yellow Blue-bordered Carpet Grey Pine Carpet July Highflyer Small Rivulet Foxglove Pug Wormwood Pug Currant Pug Grey Pug Green Pug Double-striped Pug Small White Wave Small Yellow Wave Clouded Border Tawny-barred Angle Brown Silver-line Bordered Beauty Lilac Beauty Swallow-tailed Moth Peppered Moth Willow Beauty Mottled Beauty Satin Beauty [NEW!] Great Oak Beauty Pale Oak Beauty Engrailed Brindled White-spot Bordered White Common White Wave Common Wave Clouded Silver Light Emerald Barred Red Poplar Hawk-moth Elephant Hawk-moth Buff-tip Lobster Moth Iron Prominent Pebble Prominent Maple Prominent Pale Prominent Yellow-tail Rosy Footman Red-necked Footman Scarce Footman Buff Footman Common Footman Buff Ermine Short-cloaked Moth Heart and Club Flame Flame Shoulder Large Yellow Underwing Ingrailed Clay Double Square-spot Smoky Wainscot Minor Shoulder-knot Poplar Grey Miller Grey Dagger Bird's Wing Small Angle Shades Dark Arches Light Arches Clouded-bordered Brindle Clouded Brindle Dusky Brocade Rufous Minor* Tawny Marbled Minor Small Dotted Buff Uncertain Marbled White Spot Scarce Silver-lines Oak Nycteoline Burnished Brass Beautiful Golden Y Spectacle Beautiful Hook-tip Straw Dot Snout Fan-foot Small Fan-foot
What a night! With the MV Robinson Trap back in action, it was time to see what graced the trap come Monday morning. I was pretty darned pleased to say the least, there were literally loads of moths. Unfortunately the birds still beat me to a few of the bigger moths. I got up at 6 to find a year first Swallow-tailed Moth wings, but luckily the best was in the trap! Nearly 200 moths last night with 22 New species for the year...probably a record catch for the garden. Again mostly micros but it was certainly a Wave night with Small Dusty, Common White, Riband, Small Fan-footed, Dwarf Cream, Treble Brown Spot and Single-dotted Wave! Elephant Hawk-moth, Haworths Pug, Dingy Shears and Epagoge grotiana were pick of the bunch. But best of all, both of the micros Argyresthia cupressella and Swammerdamia caesiella were new ones for me. Argyresthia cupressella if correct will be the 4th County record for Hertfordshire. All these new ones suddenly sees me at 240 species for the year though still some way to beat 385 species I had last year, still things are still possible as out of the 240 species so far this year an amazing 36 species have been new for the garden I had a night off last night as it had teamed it down for a few hours before darkness and the vegetation was sopping. Catch Report - 21/06/14 - Back Garden Stevenage - 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap Macro Moths 1x Common Emerald [NFY] 1x Swallow-tailed Moth [NFY] 1x Haworth's Pug [NFY] 1x Light Arches [NFY] 1x Elephant Hawk-moth [NFY] 1x Dingy Shears [NFY] 2x Barred Yellow [NFY] 1x Small Fan-footed Wave [NFY] 1x Single-dotted Wave [NFY] 1x Clay [NFY] 3x Marbled Minor 2x Dwarf Cream Wave 1x Small Dusty Wave 7x Treble Brown Spot 5x Dark Arches 2x Willow Beauty 2x Common White Wave 1x Common Pug 2x Green Pug 2x Buff-tip 1x Buff Ermine 1x Beautiful Hook-tip 1x Common Wainscot 1x Flame 1x Cabbage Moth 1x Double-striped Pug 2x Peppered Moth 2x Grey Pug 6x Common Footman 3x Flame Shoulder 1x Bright-line Brown-eye 2x Heart & Club 2x Fan-foot 3x Dot Moth 1x Brimstone 22x Uncertain 6x Mottled Beauty 3x Riband Wave 4x Light Emerald 4x Double Square-spot 29x Heart & Dart 19x Mottled Rustic 1x Vine's Rustic 1x Snout Micro Moths 1x Argyresthia cupressella [NEW!] 1x Swammerdamia caesiella [NEW!] 2x Scythropia crataegella [NFG] 1x Ancylis achatana [NFG] 1x Argyresthia goedartella [NFY] 1x Yponomeuta evonymella [NFY] 1x Carcina quercana [NFY] 2x Oegoconia sp [NFY] 1x Epagoge grotiana [NFY] 1x Hypsopygia costalis [NFY] 1x Pterophorus pentadactyla [NFY] 1x Argyresthia pruniella [NFY] 3x Phycita roborella 1x Phyllonorycter coryli 2x Udea prunalis 1x Agapeta hamana 1x Endotricha flammealis 1x Coleophora sp 5x Udea olivalis 3x Aphomia sociella 7x Aleimma loeflingiana 3x Tortrix viridana 15x Chrysoteuchia culmella 2x Ditula angustiorana 1x Eurrhypara hortulata 3x Hedya pruniana 1x Celypha striana 3x Epiblema uddmanniana 2x Celypha lacunana 1x Archips podana 5x Scoparia ambigualis 2x Epiphyas postvittana 1x Dipleurina lacustrata 4x Emmelina monodactyla