Ripley Moths: A night in Notts

Saturday, 12 May 2012

A night in Notts

Thursday night was the first of (hopefully) a monthly event at work. The grounds surrounding the British Geological Survey are hugely varied and the plantlife found there is broad. We have one boudary edged by farmland, another by the houses of the village, the northern edge is a lane and cricket pitch and the eastern side has a wooded stream. So the chance to organise a mothing session was organised by myself and a couple of colleagues. We set up both of my traps (15W Actinic/60W Clearbulb combo and an 80W MBF) and the only thing to let us down was the weather. We had a warm day with maximum temps of 18degrees, but the wind was blowing constantly, up to 30kph. We chose one site by the stream and the other site was in our wildlife garden next to a small drying pond. We sat and watched and waited but up until 10pm we had only had one fly-by. A couple of bats were seen and lots of associated insects that normally come to trap lights, so the signs were good. At just gone 10pm the MBF attracted a Pine Beauty, Flame Shoulder and a Waved Umber in quick succession so I was pleased that the visitors managed to see something before they departed around 1030.
I returned in the morning to unload, and we had managed 10 moths in total - 3 from the Actinic and 7 from the MBF. A bit disappointing but hopefully things will improve as it warms up! Plus these species are all new for the BGS list so I'm looking on the brightside!
Results
Actinic Trap
1 x Syndemis musculana
1 x Scalloped Hazel
1 x Agonoterpix heracliana/ciliella

80W MBF
1 x Pine Beauty
1 x Waved Umber
1 x Flame Shoulder
1 x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 x Bright-line Brown-eye
1 x Elachista atricomella
1 x Oak-tree Pug

We also found quite a few other bugs, the best of which are below.