Farmland - Braughing Friars - Field Trip - 19/07/14

The Herts moth group assembled once more on their annual trip to a 10 acre site of Hertfordshire farmland that has been left in 2006 to grow wild. The vegetation was certainly dense and even encroaching over the roads that once had 40 tonne lorries driving up and down it every single day. Those days have long gone and 8 years down the line it is amazing how much nature has really taken a hold and used every inch of space to its full potential. It is really sad that this may be the last time we all get together and trap this site (I hope not) But with sad news comes good news, and boy did we go out in style. The list is still a work in progress with various moths with other people to be checked, I will compile my notes on the night of what we observed to the hanging sheet and all of the traps that we tried to empty carefully Carefully with two things in mind, the moths flying off and Hornets...of which we had quite a few!

The weather was absolutely perfect, warm overcast (most of the time) and humid with a faint southerly breeze at times and a minimum temperature reading on my car at 4am this morning of 18 degrees!

The moths...well where do we start. We could of had a field day with all the beetle species that were coming to the traps let alone the 1000’s of moths, yep that many I would predict.

Stars of the show were Kent Black Arches, Waved Black, Brown-veined Wainscot, Lesser-spotted Pinion and Olive.

The micros are now finally done and thanks to Colin Plant and Andy King for extra dissections from moths collected during the night, we seem to have a fair old whack of the Cnephasia species present on the farm for starters! We also got quite a few wetland species suggesting a lot of movement from other habitats.

Numbers are very approximate! Please do email me for any corrections and additions chaps.

Catch Report - 19/07/14 - Braughing Friars Farmland - Braughing – 1x Hanging Sheet with 125w MV, 3x 125w MV Robinson Traps, 1x 40w Actinic Suitcase Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic + CFL 26w Suitcase Trap.

133 Macros and 115 Micros ( 248 species)

Macro Moths

1x Beautiful Hook-tip 3x Black Arches 2x Bordered Pug 5x Bright-line Brown-eye 2x Brimstone Moth 15+ Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 10+ Brown-line Bright-eye 1x Brown-veined Wainscot 5x Buff Arches 5x Buff Footman 3x Buff-tip 1x Burnished Brass 1x Chinese Character 3x Chocolate-tip 100+ Cinnabar (Caterpillars) 20+ Clay 20+ Cloaked Minor 1x Clouded Border 2x Clouded Silver 8+ Common Carpet 5x Common Footman 80+ Common Rustic 5x Common Wainscot 1x Currant Pug 30+ Dark Arches 1x Dark Dagger (checked) 5x Dark Umber 5x Dingy Footman 1x Dingy Shears 2x Dot Moth 1x Double Lobed 10+ Double Square-spot 1x Double-striped Pug 2x Drinker 15+ Dun-bar 1x Dusky Brocade 4x Dusky Sallow 2x Dwarf Cream Wave 1x Ear Moth 2x Early Thorn 12+ Elephant Hawk-moth 3x Fan-foot 2x Fern 2x Flame 8+ Flame Shoulder 1x Garden Carpet 2x Ghost Moth 3x Green Pug 2x Haworth's Pug 5x Heart & Dart 2x Iron Prominent 15+ July Highflyer 1x Kent Black Arches 1x Knot Grass 5x Large Twin-spot Carpet 15+ Large Yellow Underwing 5x Latticed Heath 10+ Least Carpet 10+ Least Yellow Underwing 2x Leopard Moth 10+ Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1x Lesser Common Rustic 10+ Lesser Yellow Underwing 1x Lesser-spotted Pinion 2x Light Arches 1x Lime-speck Pug 1x Maiden’s Blush 3x Maple Prominent 10+ Maple Pug 1x Marbled Beauty 1x Marbled Minor 2x Mottled Beauty 1x Mouse Moth 5x Nut-tree Tussock 1x Nutmeg 3x Oak Hook-tip 1x Oak Nycteoline 1x Old Lady 1x Olive 2x Pale Mottled Willow 2x Pebble Prominent 10+ Peppered Moth 1x Phoenix 1x Pine Hawk-moth 1x Poplar Grey 2x Poplar Hawk-moth 5x Privet Hawk-moth 1x Purple Thorn 5x Red Twin-spot Carpet 15+ Riband Wave 20+ Ruby Tiger 2x Rustic 1x Sallow Kitten 4x Scalloped Oak 5x Scarce Footman 2x Scorched Carpet 1x Setaceous Hebrew Character 5x Shaded Broad-bar 2x Shaded Pug 2x Shuttle-shaped Dart 2x Silver-Y 2x Single-dotted Wave 2x Slender Brindle 1x Small Angle Shades 1x Small Blood-vein 3x Small Emerald 2x Small Fan-foot 20+ Small Fan-footed Wave 1x Small Phoenix 1x Small Rivulet 1x Small Rufous 1x Small Waved Umber 2x Small Yellow Wave 20+ Smoky Wainscot 5x Snout 3x Spectacle 2x Straw Dot 2x Swallow Prominent 8x Swallow-tailed Moth 1x Sycamore 1x Tawny Marbled Minor 1x Tawny Speckled Pug 12+ Tree-lichen Beauty 10+ Uncertain 3x V-Pug 2x Vapourer Moth 1x Vine’s Rustic 5x White Satin Moth 1x White-spotted Pug 1x Willow Beauty 2x Yellow Shell 1x Yellow-barred Brindle 5+ Yellow-tail

Micro Moths

Acentria ephemerella 10+ Acleris forsskaleana 5x Acrobasis consociella 1x Aethes cnicana 1x Aethes rubigana 15+ Agapeta hamana 10x Agapeta zoegana 6x Agonopterix alstromeriana 1x Agonopterix heracliana 1x Agriphila straminella 1x Aleimma loeflingiana 2x Anacampsis blattariella 1x Anthophila fabriciana 1x Aphomia sociella 2x Apotomis lineana 1x Archips podana 1x Archips xylosteana 1x Argyresthia goedartella 1x Argyresthia trifasciata 1x Argyrotaenia ljungiana 1x Batia lunaris 1x Batia unitella 10+ Blastobasis adustella 5x Blastobasis laticolella 6x Blastodacna hellerella 1x Borkhausenia fuscescens [NEW!] 1x Bryotropha terrella 5+ Calamotropha paludella 1x Caloptilia rufipennella 1x Caloptilia semifascia 1x Cameraria ohridella 1x Carcina quercana 5x Cataclysta lemnata 2x Catoptria falsella 25+ Catoptria pinella 4x Celypha lacunana 2x Celypha striana 3x Chrysoteuchia culmella 60+ Clepsis consimilana 5+ Cnephasia asseclana 1x Gen Det Cnephasia longana 3x Gen Det Cnephasia pasiuana 1x Gen Det Cnephasia stephensiana 1x Gen Det Cochylimorpha straminea 2x Cochylis atricapitana 2x Cochylis hybridella 2x Coleophora sp 2x Crambus pascuella 1x Crambus perlella 6x Cydia pomonella 2x Cydia splendana 5+ Dipleurina lacustrata 10+ Ditula angustiorana 1x Donacaula forficella 1x Endotricha flammealis 10+ Epiblema foenella 3x Epiblema uddmmaniana 2x Eucosma campoliliana 2x Eucosma cana 10+ Eucosma hohenwartiana 5x Eucosma obumbratana 1x Eudemis profundana 2x Eudonia mercurella 10+ Eudonia pallida 1x Eurrhypara hortulata 5+ Euzophera pinguis 2x Evergestis forficalis 1x Gypsonoma dealbana 10+ Hedya nubiferana 5x Hedya pruniana 2x Helcystogramma rufescens 1x Hofmannophila pseudospretella 2x Homoeosoma sinuella 1x Hypatima rhomboidella Hypsopygia costalis 1x Limnaecia phragmitella x2 Lyonetia clerkella 1x Monochroa palustrella 1x Myelois circumvoluta 5x Orthopygia glaucinalis 1x Ostrinia nubilalis 1x Pammene fasciana 1x Pandemis cerasana 1x Pandemis corylana 2x Pandemis heparana 5x Paraswammerdamia albicapitella 2x Paraswammerdamia nebulella 1x Pempelia formosa 1x Phlyctaenia coronata 2x Phycita roborella 2x Phycitodes maritima 1x Gen Det Pleuroptya ruralis 100+ Plutella xylostella 15+ Prays fraxinella 1x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 5x Pterophorus pentadactyla 2x Pyrausta aurata 2x Pyrausta purpuralis 1x Recurvaria leucatella 1x Rhopobota naevana 3x Rhyacionia pinicolana 1x Scoparia ambigualis 2x Scoparia subfusca 1x Scrobipalpa costella 1x Sitochroa verticalis 1x Spilonota ocellana 20+ Tinea trinotella x1 Trachycera advenella 1x Trachycera suavella 1x Udea olivalis 1x Udea prunalis 4x Yponomeuta cagnagella 1x Gen Det Yponomeuta evonymella 10+ Ypsolopha scabrella 4x