Field Trip - Scales Park - 16/05/17 + New for County record!

On Tuesday night I joined several fellow moth'ers to a very large Wood in the North-east corner of Hertfordshire for some moth trapping.

We had been granted permission to be there because this is quite a highly guarded site with reasonable tight security as it has a shooting ground in the vicinity and use to be a main RAF/USAF base in WW2, in fact looking on a map from 1944, my traps were positioned right over where the bomb dump use to be!

The weather was warm and sunny and up to 24 degrees in the afternoon but extremely windy which made netting nearly impossible! But by the evening the wind had dropped but the rain started as soon as we turned up and with less wind, it wasn't going to be blown through anytime soon.

We got soaked and the equipment suffered as well with no less than 5 blown bulbs, luckily my gear just about survived although I had to throw a load of egg trays out as they were completely sodden and ripped.

Firstly though, I managed to do some day-time netting before the night trapping effort and was rewarded with some great moths, including a new one for me, Pammene rhediella (unfortunately it was quite worn).

Adela croesella also turned up, and is the County 3rd record after both 1st and 2nd County records were found in 2011 by myself and Andrew Wood on the same night! A joint County first record doesn't happen very often.

In fact...was this to be a sign? Spookily Andrew and I may have caught the same moth again on the same night and a County first once again.

Mine has been confirmed as of last night as the first South-east record of Pammene ignorata and the 12th County that it has been recorded in.

Some great moths were found and a few are still pending identification including two possible

Epinotia tetraquetrana which would also be a new moth for me, but having never seen it before I thought I would get it checked.

I'm not pretty confident that it is Epinotia tetraquetrana.

Day-time 16/05/17 - Scales Park - North-east Herts

1x Adela croesella 

2x Adela fibulella 

15+ Anthophila fabriciana

15+ Cauchas rufimitrella

5x Celypha lacunana

1x Common Pug

1x Crambus lathoniellus

2x Dichrorampha sp (to be gen det by Graeme Smith)

1x Dichrorampha plumbana

1x Epiblema scutulana sp (to be gen det by Graeme Smith) 

2x Epinotia subocellana 

1x Epinotia tedella

100+ Glyphipterix simpliciella

100+ Micropterix calthella 

1x Monopis weaverella

1x Nemapogon schwarziellus

1x Notocelia cynosbatella

1x Orange Footman 

1x Pammene rhediella [NEW!]

3x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 

1x Pyrausta aurata

1x Red Twin-spot Carpet

1x Rivulet

1x Silver-ground Carpet

1x Silver-Y

1x Syndemis musculana

3x Psyche casta (Case)

Catch Report - 16/05/17 - Scales Park - North-east Herts - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x Synergetic Skinner Trap & 1x 40w Actinic Trap

 

70 species

Macro Moths

1x Angle Shades

1x Barred Hook-tip

2x Brimstone Moth

1x Brindled Pug

1x Broken-barred Carpet

2x Chinese Character

2x Clouded Border

2x Common Carpet

2x Common Pug

1x Common Swift

1x Common White Wave

15x Cream Wave

4x Flame Shoulder

2x Grey pine Carpet

2x Hebrew Character

1x Iron Prominent

5x Latticed Heath

1x Least black Arches

1x Light Emerald

2x Maiden's Blush

1x Maple Prominent

15x Mottled Pug

2x Nut-tree Tussock

5x Oak-tree Pug

60x Orange Footman

1x Pale Oak Beauty 

2x Pale Prominent

10x Pale Tussock

5x Pebble Hook-tip 

1x Pebble Prominent

1x Peppered Moth

3x Poplar Hawk-moth

5x Poplar Lutestring

5x Red Twin-spot Carpet

1x Rustic Shoulder-knot

1x Sandy Carpet

8x Scalloped Hazel

1x Scalloped Hook-tip

2x Scorched Carpet

4x Seraphim

1x Setaceous Hebrew Character

2x Silver-ground Carpet

5x Small Phoenix

1x Spectacle

1x Streamer

3x V-Pug

1x Waved umber

3x White Ermine 

1x Yellow-barred Brindle

 

Micro Moths

1x Agapeta hamana

1x Agonopterix arenella

1x Argyrotaenia ljungiana

5x Bucculatrix nigricomella 

1x Caloptilia robustella/alchimiella

1x Crambus lathoniellus

1x Cryptoblabes bistriga 

10+ Glyphipterix simpliciella 

20+ Epinotia subocellana

5x Epinotia tedella

2x Epinotia tetraquetrana [NEW!] (to be gen det by Graeme Smith)

1x Endrosis sarcitrella 

2x Eulia ministrana

1x Monopis weaverella

1x Notocelia cynosbatella

1x Pammene Ignorata [NEW!] (Gen det by Graeme Smith)

2x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 

1x Strophedra sp (to be gen det by Graeme Smith) 

1x Swammerdamia caesiella?? (to be gen det by Graeme Smith)

3x Syndemis musculana

1x Tinea semifulvella

MV Robinson Trap Position

Homemade MV 125w + 160w MBT

1944 to 2017 showing trap positions

My trap positions

A net full of Micropterix calthella

Scalloped Hook-tip

Seraphim

 

Epinotia tetraquetrana

Epinotia subocellana

Cream Wave

Poplar Lutestring

Pammene rhediella

Pyrausta aurata

Pammene Ignorata

Eulia ministrana

Dichrorampha plumbana