Away trapping again

I managed to get out on both of our recent warmer nights, 2nd and 3rd June.  On the 2nd a couple of MV traps were run in Finemere Wood and between them they produced about 90 species.  Numbers of Tortrix viridana and Choristoneura hebenstreitella were building but weren't yet at the "plague" proportions you'd normally expect at this time of year.  There was also just a single Archips crataegana and no sign at all yet of Archips xylosteana but I'm sure they'll be along in huge numbers very shortly.  Macro species recorded there which I hadn't yet seen this year included Peach Blossom, Blotched Emerald, Cream Wave, Small Rivulet, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Light Arches & Beautiful Golden Y.

Pale-shouldered Brocade, Finemere Wood 2nd June

Beautiful Golden Y, Finemere Wood 2nd June

The following night (3rd June) the same two MV traps were run at BBOWT's Leaches Farm, part of their River Ray Reserves adjacent to the Bucks/Oxon border.  Leaches Farm is a collection of ridge-and-furrow flood-plain meadows on the south side of the A41, rich in wild flowers and bordered by thick un-managed hedgerows.  It was also one of the places I hadn't yet managed to visit this year mainly because it was so wet.  The site is still very damp even now but I'm glad I went because this proved to be the first really good away trapping session of the year.  The species count came to well past 100 and the number of individual moths was almost 700 in the usual three hours, not at all bad for this kind of habitat.  New species for the year here included Zelotherses paleana, Elophila nymphaeata, Anania fuscalis, Homoeosoma sinuella, Myelois circumvoluta, Elephant Hawk-moth, Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Blue-bordered Carpet, Double Dart, Gold Spot & Dotted Fan-foot.

Double Dart, Leaches Farm 3rd June

I last trapped regularly at Leaches Farm about 15 years ago.  Double Dart and Dotted Fan-foot are certainly new for the site list, the former an excellent record of a species very much in decline locally while the latter is a post-millennium arrival in our region and Leaches Farm is very much the kind of damp habitat it seems to favour.

         

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks