The new website

I guess a lot of you will now look at the blog after Wendy has announced it and wonder what to do. Once you have registered and got set up it is very easy. I stay logged in all the time. Please use this site and let's make it a success. We lose the species lists  but we gain the ability to chat and post things of interest and especially post what I call IDK's (I don't know's) to get a quick identification for you all. We have been monitoring other counties moth blogs and they seem to work well. Fingers crossed you all take to this one too. I look forward to seeing the list of "posters" increase daily. You can also set up the system to receive e-mail alerts of any postings so you can stay in touch. Peter Hall

Yoesden Bank at Radnage, Bucks

This example of Ypsolopha mucronella was disturbed from its slumbers at Yoesden Bank while Dick Middleton and I were doing some conservation scrub-bashing on 13th December.  Ched George

Ypsolopha mucronella

Plumed Prominent 2013

Finally caught up with Plumed Prominent at BBOWT's Warburg reserve on 29th November. I had tried for it a couple of weeks earlier, but to no avail as Warburg received its first autumnal frost of 2013. However, I only caught one individual (male) in comparison to the 20 caught on the 9th November in exactly the same spot in 2012, and six on the 11th November in 2011. I survey at Warburg for two reasons: firstly, to keep an eye on the population there, and secondly to make sure the moth is on the wing so I can 'try' and search for other locations where it has not been recorded before. The weather and injury has largely prevented me from doing any extra trapping this autumn/winter so far, but I did trap with 2 MV Robinson traps and 1 8W Actinic Heath trap at Braziers Park on 27th November, and also tried with a 6W blacklight in a field surrounded by fairly mature Field Maple on chalk downland in between Brazier's Park and Checkendon on 28th November. Plenty of December Moths (36) around at Braziers Park and a total species list of 16, but no moths at all in the blacklight trap.At Braziers Park the MV traps were not that close to Field Maple, but the 15W Actinic trap was placed alongside an area with quite a few mature Field Maples. The area I trapped with a blacklight looks fantastic and would be worth further attention on a milder night and with more attractive lights.  Marc Botham

Finemere Wood, Bucks

I've been carrying out regular moth surveys at BBOWT's Finemere Wood for seven years now and have seen 645 different species there over that period.  There are historic records from the wood of a further 50 moths that I've yet to find but, while this number is still diminishing very slowly, a number of them will be species that we can almost guarantee are no longer present (Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, Dark Marbled Carpet, Marbled Pug, Triple-spotted Clay, Dotted Clay & Lesser-spotted Pinion, to name but a few).

During the course of 21 trapping visits to Finemere in 2013 more than 360 species were recorded and they included 38 new to the site list.  As would be expected, the majority of the additions were micros, amongst which were a few leaf-miners including three of the birch-feeding Eriocrania species (unimaculella, sangii & semipurpurella all found as larvae on 16th May), but there were also some interesting adults such as Acrocercops brongniardella (22nd September), Caryocolum tricolorella (31st July), Syncopacma larseniella (31st July) & Nephopterix angustella (5th September).  The pick of the larger moths were Gem (8th October), Dotted Chestnut (14th April), Webb's Wainscot (5th September), Small Rufous (31st July) & Waved Black (31st July).  DAVE WILTON

Caryocolum tricolorella, Finemere Wood

Small Rufous, Finemere Wood

 

Webb's Wainscot, Finemere Wood