Mixed results away from home

On Thursday night I made a last-minute decision to take a couple of traps into Bernwood Forest, Bucks.  It is only a short 20 minute drive from home where it had stayed dry all day and the temperature was more than acceptable for a good night's trapping.  Unfortunately when I arrived at Bernwood it was clear that some particularly heavy rain had just passed through which meant that the rides were absolutely soaked and the 'rain' continued to fall from the trees even though the storm had moved on.  I almost decided to abandon ship straight away but in the end ran just one MV trap for a couple of hours to see what might still decide to fly.  The answer was very little and the nepticulids I was hoping to see were, of course, noticeable by their absence (I was looking for Ectoedemia longicaudella which is known only from Bernwood and should be flying now, the adults of which seem to have avoided anyone's camera to date).  The list came to a very uninspiring 50 species, although there were one or two nice moths including Bordered Beauty, Dotted Fan-foot and the Bernwood speciality Small Black Arches.

Small Black Arches, Bernwood 8th July

Dotted Fan-foot, Bernwood 8th July

Last night's away trapping was also a last-minute decision but at least this time I was aware that a large shower had passed through my intended destination before nightfall.  However, when I got to the chalk grassland at Grangelands near Cadsden, Bucks there was little sign that it had rained although the temperature was perhaps rather lower than expected.  Three traps were run for three hours, two MV's out on the grassland and one actinic in amongst the junipers with the tiny foodplant-specific Argyresthia species as the main target.  The species count was acceptable, with 95 coming to the MV shown below to give a combined total of about 130 altogether.  There were lots of chalk grassland moths and my particular favourite was the micro Aethes tesserana which up until this appearance had quite successfully managed to avoid me.  Thiotricha subocellea was good to see but only two Argyresthias were potted and it will be down to Peter Hall to determine their IDs (no pressure!).  One of them may have been Argyresthia dilectella, the other seemed to be completely unmarked.  Amongst the macros there was only the one highlight, four examples of Royal Mantle, although it was also nice to see an all-black Peppered Moth as well as Maple Prominent and my first Kent Black Arches of the year.   

Moth'ers mid-summer lament:  Grangelands at 10.10pm,
 will it ever get dark?!  The view is towards Oxford with the
 lights on the Islip TV mast visible if you know where to look.

Thiotricha subocellea, Grangelands 9th July

Aethes tesserana, Grangelands 9th July

Royal Mantle, Grangelands 9th July

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks