Further news from Westcott

Two nights ago the garden trap here at Westcott, Bucks produced quite a good result, with Coleophora mayrella, Ethmia dodecea, Athrips mouffetella, Choristoneura hebenstreitella, Acleris forsskaleana, Acentria ephemerella & Small Scallop new for the year list.  Ethmia dodecea is a garden first and seems to be popping up all over the place.  Last night I was greedy and ran two lights (125wt and twin-30wt actinic) and ended up with rather a lot of moths - 150 species, 90 of them macros.  Two moths in particular stood out from the crowd,  a rather battered Metalampra italica which may be a first for Bucks and an equally tired-looking Muslin Footman which is new for the garden list.  Metalampra italica is an adventive species which has been spreading since it was first discovered in the UK in 2003.   

Metalampra italica, Westcott 10th July

Muslin Footman, Westcott 10th July

Other species from last night worth mentioning were Limnaecia phragmitella, Lobesia abscisana, Leopard Moth, Brown Scallop, Slender Pug, Bordered Beauty, White Satin, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Shark, Waved Black & Dotted Fan-foot, but otherwise it was just lots of the common species already mentioned on these pages.

I also made a return visit to Bernwood Forest last night to trap in a different area to that which Peter Hall and I visited a week ago.  In Shabbington Wood I was very pleased to get Beautiful Snout and Dotted Fan-foot, along with the expected Bernwood specialities of Rosy Footman, Small Black Arches & Common Fan-foot.  Red-necked Footman and Scarlet Tiger appeared too, as did Phtheochroa inopiana which was again present in unprecedented numbers (77 between two traps!).

Dave Wilton