Stoke Common Century

Martin Albertini, Andy King and I ran traps on Stoke Common, Bucks again last night in a last-ditch effort to find first-brood Small Chocolate-tip but once again the moth failed to show.  However, with more than 100 species recorded in the three hours we were there it was certainly a successful night!  Neofaculta ericetella and Narrow-winged Pug were again the most abundant species although their totals were well down on our last visit on 20th April.  Cydia ulicetana and Scoparia ambigualis were the only other moths present in any quantity but lack of numbers didn't mean lack of species.  Of the 72 macros recorded, Mocha and Cream-bordered Green Pea were both new for the site.  Mocha is found fairly regularly throughout the Chilterns but Cream-bordered Green Pea is more often encountered in the northern half of Bucks and sightings in the south are uncommon.  Other species trapped there which I don't recall having seen mentioned on the blog yet included Purple Bar, Common Marbled Carpet, Broken-barred Carpet, Lime-speck Pug, Small Yellow Wave, Small Seraphim, Scorched Wing, True Lover's Knot, Heart & Dart, White-point, Marbled Minor sp., Pale Mottled Willow, Green Silver-lines, Silver Y and Snout.  More than 30 micro species came to the traps, including Phylloporia bistrigella, Bucculatrix ulmella, Roeslerstammia erxlebella, Coleophora albicosta, Teleiodes luculella, Carpatolechia proximella, Ancylis uncella, Epinotia demarniana, Rhyacionia pinivorana, a Dioryctria sp. and Pyrausta purpuralis. 

Stoke Common, 15th May

I'm not sure that I'm overly impressed with Windows photo-gallery's attempt at an auto-collage above but it saved me having to think about which of last night's pictures to include and which to leave out!  The six macros are all mentioned in the paragraph above and ought to be self-explanatory while the two micros shown are Ancylis uncella and the Dioryctria which I haven't yet had a chance to look at closely (three of the four Dioryctria species are known from Stoke Common).  The Eyed Ladybird is there simply because it looks nice and it is a very rare visitor to my light traps!

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks