File:-1943- Great Oak Beauty (Hypomecis roboraria) and Pale Oak Beauties (48009520281).jpg

Bramfield Woods - 01/06/19

On Saturday night, and after cancelling the previous Thursday’s trip out due to ill health, I was ready to go again with a few better nights sleep under my belt. Saturday during the day had been a right ole’ scorcher, with highs of 28 degrees and plenty of warm sunshine. We also had quite a bit of cloud bubble up an hour into the session, and the relative humidity was extremely high. Thus, the moths responded very well to all manner of spectrums of UV, we ran 10 lights in total across the central and Eastern areas of Bramfield Woods, positioning nearly all of the lights out of site of one another.

An hour in and with that increasing cloud cover, the traps were going bonkers at just before 11pm, so much so, that it was hard to keep up with what had just came in and then noting new arrivals as quickly as I could type up my list.

Trevor’s Traps in the far East did very well for micros, and so did a few of mine in the central/eastern section. Towards the West more, Colin’s two MV’s rustled up lots of new for site Macro Moths and although originally thinking there weren’t many of the smaller moths present, upon inspection he was pleasantly surprised.

Stand-out Macro Moth species for me were Larch Pug (Seen only once in Essex previously in 2009), Grey Arches (Again just one record from Hexton Chalk Pit in 2014) and Two Great Oak Beauties, which seem to be getting earlier and earlier each year.

Micro Moths was where the night was really, with the warm conditions lasting all night, the sky and egg trays were full of them! So much so that it was quite tricky wading through hundreds of Coleophora and Stigmella’s to find the interesting stuff… o gawd we must have missed heaps I reckon, as we still continued to pack up gone 3am! A worn Pug that Colin took home with him, after dissection turned out to be the very rare Campanula Pug!

Best moth of the night went to the scarce Pyralid adventive species, Agrota nemoralis.. a new addition to the Herts list and one I had only seen previously in France before, what a stunning looking moth it was. This was backed up by scarce Pine moths such as Cedestis subfasciella, Cydia conicolana, Elegia similella and Pammene ochsenheimeriana.

Also three specimens of the scarce Tortrix Ancylis diminutana were noteworthy, a species I added to the Bedfordshire list only last year.

Here is the total list so far

Macro Moths : 89 species Micro Moths : 112 species

Total : 201 species!

Catch Report - 01/06/19 - Bramfield Woods - Hertfordshire - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap, 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x twin 20w Wemite Actinic & 40w Actinic Trap & 1x 160w Mercury Blended Robinson Trap - 5 traps in total + 3 extra traps provided by Trevor and 2 extra traps provided by Colin (10 in total).

Macro Moths

Alder Moth Angle Shades Blood-vein Bordered White Brimstone Brindled White-spot Broken-barred Carpet Brown Rustic Brown Silver-lines Buff Ermine Buff tip Campanula Pug - GEN DET CWP Clay Triple-lines Clouded Border Clouded Silver Common Carpet Common Marbled Carpet Common Pug Common Swift Common Wainscot Coxcomb Prominent Cream Wave Dark Arches Dwarf Pug Figure of Eighty Flame Shoulder Foxglove Pug Green Carpet Grey Arches Grey-pine Carpet Grey Pug Green Pug Green Silver-lines Heart & Dart Large Nutmeg Large Yellow Underwing Oak Nycteoline Light Brocade Cinnabar Larch Pug Least Black Arches Light Emerald Lime Hawk-moth Lime-speck Pug Maiden's Blush Marbled Brown Marbled Minor Marbled White-spot Middle barred Minor Mottled Pug Nut-tree Tussock Oak Hook tip Ochreous Pug Orange Footman Pale Oak Beauty Pale Prominent Pale Tussock Peacock Moth Pebble Hook-tip Pebble Prominent Peppered Moth Poplar Grey Poplar Lutestring Puss Moth Red necked Footman Riband Wave Rustic Shoulder knot Sandy Carpet Scalloped Hazel Scalloped Hook tip Scorched Carpet Scorched Wing Seraphim Setaceous Hebrew Character Silver-ground Carpet Single-dotted Wave Small Fan-foot Small Phoenix Small White Wave Snout Spruce Carpet Straw Dot Tawny-barred Angle Treble Brown Spot Treble Lines Turnip Moth White Ermine White Point Yellow-barred Brindle

Micro Moths

Acrobasis advenella Adela reamurella Agapeta hamana Agrotera nemoralis Alabonia geoferella Ancylis diminutana Ancylis mitterbacheriana Aphomia sociella Apotomis turbidana Aphomia sociella Agonopterix arenella Argyresthia brockeella Argyresthia conjugella Argyresthia spinosella Argyresthia trifasciata Assara terrebrella Bactra sp Blastobasis lacticolella Bucculatrix ulmella Caloptilia alchimiella - GEN DET CWP Caloptilia robustella - GEN DET CWP Caloptilia syringella Cameraria ohridella Capua vulgana Carpatolechia proximella Cedestis subfasciella Celypha lacunana Cnephasia Cochylimorpha straminea Cochylis atricapitana Cochylis nana Cochylis molliculana Coleophora sp Coleophora frischella/alcyonipennella Coptoptriche marginea Crambus lathoniellus Cryptoblabes bistriga Cydia conicolana Cydia fagiglandana Cydia nigricana Cydia pomonella Dioryctria schuetzeella Dioryctria simplicella Ectoedemia decentella Elachista albifrontella Elachista argentella Elachista cannapenella Elegia similella Endrosis sarcitrella Ephestia sp Epinotia bilunana Epinotia demarniana Epinotia tetraquetrana Epinotia rubiginosana Epinotia subocellana Epiphyas postvittana Esperia sulphurella Eulia ministrana Evergestis forficalis Glyphipterix forsterella Grapholita compositella Gypsonoma dealbana Hedya nubiferana Hedya pruniana Hofmannophila pseudospretella Incurvaria oehmanniella Lobesia reliquana Micropterix aureatella Monopis laevigella Monopis weaverella Nemapogon cloacella Nemapogon koenigi Nemophora deegerella Nematopogon schwarziellus Nematopogon swammerdamella Notocelia cynosbatella Notocelia trimaculana Notocelia uddmanniana Orthotaenia undulana Pammene argyrana Pandemis cerasana Pammene ochsenheimeriana Paraswammerdamia albicapitella Parornix betulae - GEN DET CWP Parornix devoniella - GEN DET CWP Phyllonorycter harisella Phyllonorycter heegeriella Phyllonorycter hilarella Phyllonorycter lautella Phyllonorycter nicellii - GEN DET CWP Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae - GEN DET CWP Plutella xylostella Pseudargyrotoza conwagana Phtheochroa rugosana Ptycholoma lecheana Roeslerstammia erxlebella Rhyacionia pinivorana Rhodophaea formosa Scoparia ambigualis Scoparia pyralella Scrobipalpa costella Spilonota ocellana Stigmella atricapitella - GEN DET CWP Strophedra nitidana Strophedra weirana Swammerdamia caesiella - GEN DET CWP Syndemis musculana Teleoides luculella Teleiopsis diffinis Tinea trinotella Tinea semifulvella