Bernwood Forest

Last night Peter Hall and I ran four MV lights in an area of Bernwood Forest where we've never before targeted the Red Data Book species Triangle Heterogenea asella.  Since its rediscovery at the site in 2010 this tiny golden macro-moth, easily dismissed by the un-enlightened as "just another micro", has been recorded from Hell Coppice, Oakley Wood and York's Wood but not from the eastern part of the forest, Shabbington Wood, so this was an attempt to put that right.  Despite a deluge of micros, notably Archips xylosteana, Tortrix viridana and Acrobasis repandana (there were literally hundreds of those three species to every trap), we did each manage to pick out a single example of Triangle.

Skinner trap early in the night, Shabbington Wood 2nd July

Triangle, Shabbington Wood 2nd July

Our four MV traps produced quite a reasonable total over the three hours from dusk that we were there, altogether more than 200 species being caught.  Bernwood speciality Small Black Arches was present, while it was also good to see unusual species such as Lappet and Dotted Fan-foot.  Amongst the macros, Large Emerald appeared at every trap and the largest numbers were provided by Buff Footman, Minor Shoulder-knot, Dun-bar and Small Dotted Buff.  The trunks of a small collection of black poplars were inspected close to where one of the traps was run and one of them produced two exuviae of Hornet Moth at its base (apologies for the poor picture, taken by phone camera in the light of a head-torch).

Large Emeralds, Shabbington Wood 2nd July

Hornet Moth pupal cases, Shabbington Wood 2nd July

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks