A good night on the Greensand Ridge

I ventured out to Rammamere Heath on the Bucks/Beds border last night and was pleasantly surprised to achieve a catch of more than 80 species in the usual three hours.  The thundery southerly airflow brought a couple of migrants, Plutella xylostella and Dark Sword-grass, while amongst nearly 60 mostly common macro species were Peach Blossom, Brown Silver-line, Grey Pine Carpet, Treble-bar, Peppered Moth, Pale Oak Beauty, White-pinion Spotted, Marbled Brown, Iron Prominent, Lobster Moth, Light Brocade & Rustic Shoulder-knot which hadn't seen me yet this year.  Narrow-winged Pug was present in numbers with 44 recorded and I'm hopeful of something of interest amongst a few other pugs which have been retained (I had Pauper Pug here in 2011).  It was also good to see a decent selection of micros at last.  Needless to say, trapping amongst heather meant that the rather drab Neofaculta ericetella was the most numerous moth of the evening (135 recorded) but there was plenty of colour amongst the others, including torts Cochylis nana, Eulia ministrana, Lobesia reliquana, Epinotia bilunana, Epinotia immundana & Epinotia tetraquetrana.  The tiny incurvariid Phylloporia bistrigella also appeared, as did plume Platyptilia gonodactyla. 

Dark Sword-grass, Rammamere Heath 11th May

Phylloporia bistrigella, Rammamere Heath 11th May

Lobesia reliquana, Rammamere Heath 11th May

Epinotia tetraquetrana, Rammamere Heath 11th May

Back home at Westcott the garden trap did reasonably well too, bringing in 33 species.  New for the year were Hypsopygia costalis, Oak Hook-tip, Common Carpet, Lime-speck Pug, Pale Tussock, Buff Ermine, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Treble Lines & Spectacle.  Chocolate-tip continued its record-breaking year here with another pair visiting, taking this year's count to 20.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks