North Bucks Woodland

Last night I ran a couple of MV lights in a private wood north of Buckingham which hasn't previously been surveyed for its moths.  The final species total came to a splendid 104, much higher than expected during the "August lull" thanks to a good showing of micros which accounted for 64 of them.  However, it was a macro which provided the most interest:  Devon Carpet.  We had a handful of records of that species in Bucks between 2009 and 2013 then, as far as I'm aware, the moth hasn't been heard of since in the county, so it came as quite a surprise to find four of them coming to one of the lights last night.

Devon Carpet, 11th August

Amongst the other macro species were both Mere Wainscot and Small Wainscot.  The wood is full of Calamagrostis so there is an outside chance that Concolorous might also be found here at the appropriate time next year, although the surviving colonies of that species are more of a Northamptonshire speciality these days.

Mere Wainscot, 11th August

Small Phoenix (11), Swallow Prominent (23) & Black Arches (44) were the best-performing macros.  Amongst the micros, Blastobasis adustella (100+) & Patania ruralis (33) were the highest achievers, while other interesting sightings included Ypsolopha nemorella, Evergestis pallidata and an Elachista which will need dissection.  With the area of greyish hairs in the cilia the choice is probably between Elachista adscitella and Elachista obliquella (fingers crossed for the latter because there's only one previous record for Bucks so far as I'm aware).

Ypsolopha nemorella, 11th August

Elachista sp., 11th August

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks