Bernwood on Wednesday Night

Two different areas of Bernwood Forest, Bucks were surveyed on the shortest night (following the hottest day) of the year, Dave in Oakley Wood and Peter in Hell Coppice.  The final species total is still a work in progress, but when both the macro and the micro totals on the combined list each pass 100 species you know you've had a reasonably good session!  The micros were dominated by Archips xylosteana and Tortrix viridana with 1,000+ individuals of each, while Aleimma loeflingiana and Archips podana were also-rans with 300+ each.  Wading past all those made it interesting - to put it mildly - trying to pick out the others but we persevered.  Amongst those of particular interest as far as Bernwood is concerned were Monopis crocicapitella, Ethmia dodecea, Olindia schumacherana, Gypsonoma minutana, Grapholita janthinana, Schoenobius gigantella & Elegia similella which were all new to the site.  It was also good to see Notocelia tetragonana again at the only spot it has ever been recorded in Bucks.  The Bernwood list currently exceeds 900 species, more than 800 of which have been seen by us during our regular surveying there over the past nine years.

Notocelia tetragonana, Oakley Wood 21st June (Dave Wilton)

Gypsonoma minutana, Oakley Wood 21st June (Dave Wilton)

Ethmia dodecea, Hell Coppice 21st June (Peter Hall)

Macro abundance was of course far lower and, without trying too hard to work out all the totals, Coronet seems to have topped the list with 30 individuals seen.  Scarlet Tiger visited each trap, as did Orange Moth and Rosy Footman, while we also had such nice species as Poplar Lutestring, Large Emerald, Little Emerald, Plain Wave, Satin Beauty, Barred Red, White Satin, Red-necked Footman, Four-dotted Footman, Purple Clay, Grey Arches, Minor Shoulder-knot, Scarce Silver-lines & Blackneck amongst many others.  Of the Bernwood specialities we got a double-digit count of Small Black Arches, all looking nice and fresh, but the eight examples of Common Fan-foot were rather worn and the moth seemed to have passed its peak already.  Unfortunately Triangle failed to show this time but we're sure it was up in the tops of the oaks under which we trapped, probably laughing at our efforts to entice it down!

Large Emerald, Hell Coppice 21st June (Peter Hall)

Orange Moth, Hell Coppice 21st June (Peter Hall)

Peter Hall & Dave Wilton