Following my visit to the Waddesdon Estate on the 11th, before the weather turns much colder I made the most of the last few warm(ish) nights to get in further September trapping sessions at some of the places I'm visiting regularly this year. During the summer months I wouldn't even contemplate going out four nights in a row but with the hours of daylight now much shorter I can get the usual three hours of trapping in and still be home at a reasonable hour to get some sleep.
Although better than at Waddesdon, there were relatively few moths to be seen at any of the sites, the main species of autumn having not yet started in earnest and the numbers of micros in particular have fallen off a cliff. Three traps were employed each time (two 125wt MVs and a 15wt synergetic). On the 12th I went to private woodland near Silverstone which produced a combined total of 98 adult moths of 38 species, more than half of which came to the little 15wt Heath trap. Amongst the autumnal species here were Red-green Carpet, Brindled Green, Brick, Brown-spot Pinion and several of the Sallows (all in very small numbers though) along with Pinion-streaked Snout and migrants Nomophila noctuella & Dark Sword-grass. Unusually for woodland at this time of year, there were no Hornets!
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| Brick, near Stowe 12th September |
On the 13th I went to the Forestry Commission's Yardley Chase on the border with Northamptonshire, visiting one of two areas of woodland there which are entirely within Bucks. Here the traps brought in a similar number to the previous night, 97 adult moths of 37 species, but with a handful of Hornets to make life more interesting. Black Rustic & Deep-brown Dart (the odd-looking specimen below, with that outer row of black and white darts) were added to the autumnal species, while second-generation examples of Riband Wave and Kent Black Arches were of interest, but no migrants were seen.
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| Deep-brown Dart, Yardley Chase 13th September |
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| Kent Black Arches, Yardley Chase 13th September |
Finally, last night (14th) I returned to Yardley Chase to run traps in the other area of woodland I've been looking at, more than 2km away from the first, and here there was a noticeable reduction in activity with only 52 adult moths of 24 species but a significant increase in Hornets! Overall there was little of interest, although three Small Wainscots were nice to see and one of only six moths attracted to the 15wt trap was a very smart migrant Vestal.
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| Vestal, Yardley Chase 14th September |
To relieve the boredom I did some leaf-mining by torchlight at all three sites. Almost all of those found were common and widespread species but I did strike lucky last night by finding active mines of Coptotriche angusticollella on dog rose. There are only a handful of records for this Nationally Scarce species in Bucks, Yardley Chase now becoming the fourth known site. I've previously had the adult at Whitecross Green Wood and mines in Salcey Forest, while it has also been recorded at Grangelands.
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| Coptotriche angusticollella, Yardley Chase 14th September |
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| Coptotriche angusticollella, Yardley Chase 14th September |
Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks
Well done on finding angusticolella, Dave! It seems to be a very patchy one - I've looked for it in VC23 without success. When I saw it in Kent last year it was abundant in one woodland, and totally absent from the next one over. Interesting to know it's at Grangelands, not that far from Aston Rowant where I have so far failed to find it.
ReplyDeleteHi Will,
ReplyDeleteThanks - I agree, very patchy, and the mines can't really be confused with anything else. I was very pleased with that find.
One of my "banker" species over the last few nights was Fomoria (Ectoedemia) septembrella which I managed to find easily on St John's Wort at the first two sites but couldn't locate anywhere last night despite an abundance of the food-plant along the woodland ride edges (in fact far more of it than at either of the other two locations). Although I have occasionally seen mines on quite small leaves, the moth seems to prefer the larger ones lower down the stem but none of last night's plants had any larger leaves at all - the lowest six inches or so of each plant's stem were bare. Rabbits, perhaps, or maybe slugs, or maybe it was a different variety of Hypericum, but a bit odd all the same!