With the temperature hovering around 3C at dusk but supposed to stay above freezing, I took a single MV trap into local oak woodland again last night. Moths were around but in much reduced numbers compared with five days ago, only 37 individuals of five species being seen (and nothing new from last time). However I did find a single Dotted Border female on an oak trunk, to my mind the smartest of the flightless females and certainly the one from that group with the most substantial vestigial wings.
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| Dotted Border female, 7th February |
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| Dotted Border female, 7th February |
Twice I thought I'd struck lucky with one of the other flightless females too but each time it proved to be a newly-emerged male Pale Brindled Beauty scampering up a tree-trunk!
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| Newly-emerged Pale Brindled Beauty male, 7th February |
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
Please don't tell me you spent 4 hours by one trap at 3 degrees celsius?
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