Homefield Wood, Bucks

I ran a couple of MV lights in the BBOWT part of Homefield Wood near Marlow, Bucks a couple of nights ago and got a reasonable catch, more than 130 species coming to the particular trap I was monitoring throughout the usual three hours, although nothing particularly surprising turned up.  Kent Black Arches appeared at both lights (two to each - a species that is getting quite common locally now especially on chalk grassland sites), as did the smart pyrale Oncocera semirubella which simply wasn't to be found anywhere locally until the beginning of this decade (37 individuals were shared between the two lights).  My first Clouded Magpie of the year was seen (in fact four of them altogether), a species that is always nice to get and one of the those moths which look absolutely stunning in MV light at night but not quite so stunning when viewed in daylight!  The nationally scarce gelechid Altenia scriptella turned up again with a couple of examples to one of the lights which was run beneath a field maple, its larval food-plant.  Here and Adam Bassett's garden in Marlow Bottom are the only known sites for it in Bucks. 

Altenia scriptella, Homefield Wood 16th July

Clouded Magpie, Homefield Wood 16th July

A quick torchlight search revealed good numbers of Striped Lychnis larvae on dark mullein growing in the BBOWT meadow and along the main forest track.  It was interesting to find one or two Cinnabar caterpillars feeding on the flower spikes too in spots where their ragwort - already completely stripped of flowers - was growing amongst the dark mullein.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks