National Moth Night 2021

The theme for 2021 is reed-beds and the nearest suitable habitat to me is at Staveley, just a couple of miles from home.  The big drawback for the site is poor access with long distance to lug the equipment to get to the reedbeds.  In the past I have used a wheelbarrow but since my daughter moved her horses away I no longer have that luxury.  On Thursday night 8th July, I managed to get set up based at the furthest hide by 2215, and I retired to the car to get some sleep.  A start at counting and identifying from 0400 and took 3 hours to count the four traps and pack everything away.

A fairly modest haul with no great numbers, and surprisingly few Wainscot species.  A total of about 360 moths of 85 species, several micros still to be sorted, the most numerous being 47 Clouded Border, 40 Smoky Wainscot, 33 Uncertain/Rustic agg., and 26 July Highflier.  The reedbed specialities were few in number but included singles each of  Crescent, Southern Wainscot, and a new Yorkshire record for me of Obscure Wainscot.

73.119 Crescent Helotropha leucostigma

73.294 Southern Wainscot Mythimna straminea

73.302 Obscure Wainscot Leucania obsoleta

A good feature shown by Southern Wainscot is a browband clearly seen when viewed head-on.

Southern Wainscot, browband feature.

Other species seen included the following, some colourful moths others rather plainer but still of interest. 

49.215 Ancylis achatana

63.020 Anania perlucidalis

63.079 Calamotropha paludella

63.080 Garden Grass-veneer Chrysoteuchia culmella

70.013 Small Fan-footed Wave Idaea biselata

70.093 Barred Straw Gandaritis pyraliata

70.278 Common Wave Cabera exanthemata

73.101 Treble Lines Charanyca trigrammica

Two new macro-moths

This is something that doesn't happen too often these days, two new macros.  Off the back of delivering a vehicle to Carlyon Bay in Cornwall I had enough tacho hours to get back as far as Somerset.  Calling on my local knowledge I aimed for Shapwick Heath where I used to do some bird ringing back in the 1990's. I parked up and walked to my proposed site to find that the willow sprigs planted all those years ago and kept to no more than 10' by regular cutting were now a veritable forest!  It really wasn't suitable for moth trapping close enough to parking, so I opted to try Godwins peatworks on nearby Westhay Heath with ample parking and where I also ringed some birds.  On arrival a Great White Egret feeding on an open pool was an excellent omen.  I put a single Robinson trap out 100m up a drove with reed-beds on one side, willow scrub and a open water on the other.  It proved a reasonable night with modest numbers and species, 94 moths of 39 species, but did include some interesting species; there were a good selection of China-marks and Wainscots as might be expected from such habitat.

Elophila nymphaeata (Brown China-mark)

Archanara dissoluta (Brown-veined Wainscot)

Chilodes maritima (Silky Wainscot)

The commonest moth was another Wainscot, of which there were 15, and one was potted for photographing and identification.  On checking it soon became evident they were Obscure Wainscots, another new one for me and according to the Somerset Moth Group website not showing any dots for the County.  I have since learned that the moth does occur in Somerset with some frequency and the absence of dots on the map is a result of name changes within MapMate.  

Brown-veined Wainscot (left) and Obscure Wainscot (right)

Obscure Wainscot

There was only one pug which looked very small, nondescript and had an orange 'waistband'; it was clearly a Haworth's Pug, another new one for me.

Haworth's Pug

A successful visit to a County where I started moth trapping all those years ago but not seriously enough to have recorded my Blackford gardens catches in Mapmate.