File:(1837) Grey Pug (Eupithecia subfuscata) (27541271746).jpg

Moth Trapping down on the farm part 2

I decided to run some more lights on my parents farm again on Tuesday night.

This was the second time this year that I decided to go all out with five traps scattered around the 10 acres of farmland. The weather was very questionable indeed and we had had some rain earlier with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder thrown into the mix as well. It was the temperature that spurred me on more than anything, hitting a heady 24 degrees during late afternoon and with predicted overnight minimum temperatures of around 14 degrees!

The traps were positioned underneath as much cover as possible to avoid being drenched through, two of the traps I placed under the old grain silos and another one went under the awning of a former stable block. The other two braved the elements out in the open.

After I had setup it started to drizzle again and this theme continued through the night, eventually fizzling out by 12.30am. By 4am however it seemed to have only just started to rain again which was a real pain sorting through the catches as moths seem to be hyper-sensitive to rain droplets landing on them when they are settled on the egg trays. Thankfully the rain stopped in time for photographing them and we were soon greeted by a warm sunny day again. There were plenty of moths coming to all of the lights but quite a few examples of the same species.

I was pleasantly surprised however when I nearly o so nearly hit 100 species...99 it was to be!

Best moths were examples of Lobster Moth, Sandy Carpet, Aethes tesserana, Anania perlucidalis and White-point.

Catch Report - 06/06/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap & 1x 40w Actinic and 26w BLB Trap

Macro Moths - 60 Species

2x Angle Shades 1x Brimstone Moth 1x Buff Ermine 5x Cinnabar 3x Clouded Silver 1x Clouded-bordered Brindle 2x Common Carpet 4x Common Pug 21x Common Swift 1x Common Wainscot 1x Coxcomb Prominent 1x Elephant Hawk-moth 3x Flame 7x Flame Shoulder 2x Garden Carpet 1x Ghost Moth 3x Green Carpet 2x Green Silver-lines 1x Grey-pine Carpet 5x Grey Pug 9x Heart & Dart 1x Iron Prominent 7x Large Nutmeg 2x Large Yellow Underwing 3x Light Emerald 1x Lime-speck Pug 1x Lobster Moth 17x Marbled Minor 5x Middle-barred Minor 2x Mottled Pug 2x Mottled Rustic 2x Orange Footman 3x Pale Oak Beauty 2x Pale Tussock 1x Peppered Moth 3x Poplar Hawk-moth 1x Purple Bar 20x Rustic Shoulder-knot 1x Sandy Carpet 1x Scorched Carpet 5x Scorched Wing 35x Setaceous Hebrew Character 2x Shears 1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot 3x Silver-Y 5x Silver-ground Carpet 4x Small Square-spot 2x Snout 2x Spectacle 2x Straw Dot 1x Swallow Prominent 3x Tawny Marbled Minor 16x Treble Lines 1x Uncertain 1x Vine's Rustic 1x Waved Umber 7x White Ermine 1x White-point 1x White-spotted Pug 2x Willow Beauty

Micro Moths - 39 Species

3x Epiblema cirsiana/stictiana 10x Anthophila fabriciana 300+ Plutella xylostella 1x Cauchas rufimitrella 8x Celypha lacunana 10x Crambus lathoniellus 2x Endrosis sarcitrella 3x Mompha subbistrigella 3x Glyphipterix simpliciella 5x Chrysoteuchia culmella 2x Aethes tesserana 4x Scoparia ambigualis 4x Aphomia sociella 1x Eucosma hohenwartiana 2x Hofmannophila pseudospretella 2x Agapeta hamana 1x Aphelia paleana 1x Paraswammerdamia albicapitella 3x Udea olivalis 2x Monopis weaverella 1x Blastobasis lacticolella 2x Epinotia bilunana 10x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 3x Hedya pruniana 1x Eudonia pallida 3x Cochylis atricapitana 2x Homoeosoma sinuella 1x Prays fraxinella/ruficeps 2x Notocelia cynosbatella 2x Hedya nubiferana 1x Anania perlucidalis 1x Tinea semifulvella 1x Eudonia lacustrata 1x Eudonia mercurella 2x Argyresthia spinosella 1x Notocelia uddmanniana 1x Epiblema costipunctana 1x Achroia grisella