Sunday 16 August 2015

College Lake, Bucks

A Bucks Invertebrate Group meeting at the Wildlife Trust's flagship reserve in Bucks yesterday resulted in somewhere over 100 moth species being recorded, quite an achievement because it felt like December even before the traps were switched on!  A former chalk quarry, the site boasts both wetland and chalk grassland habitats so there was a good mix of species between the six lights.  The still youthful reed-beds produced a nice mix of wainscots, comprising Southern, Twin-spotted, Brown-veined and Webb's, while sightings of chalk downland species included Paratalanta hyalinalis, Oncocera semirubella, Annulet (11 counted) and Square-spotted Clay.
 
Paratalanta hyalinalis, College Lake 15th August

Shown on the left are the three relatively common wetland wainscots that were recorded, Southern on the left, Twin-spotted in the centre and Brown-veined on the right.  Unfortunately the rather frisky Webb's Wainscot, a scarce 'Notable B list' species which obviously had ideas above its station, refused to have anything to do with a group photograph so gets to appear separately below!  


Webb's Wainscot, College Lake 15th August

Annulet, College Lake 15th August



Peter Hall & Dave Wilton



 

4 comments:

  1. Dave, did you get an id for the "long nosed reedy things"??

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  2. So what were the black Pyraustas Mr. Hall? Don't forget the Cinnabar larva I found after strenuous searching in the dark!

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  3. You didn't give me a grid reference for the Cinnabar and the dark Pyraustas were all purpuralis

    ReplyDelete