Field Trip - Bramfield Woods - 19/05/20

On Tuesday night we returned to Bramfield Wood after 8 weeks of lockdown and tight restrictions, we are now officially allowed to go out and record wildlife solely or with other people in pairs, respecting social distancing etc.
The day had been hot at around 26 degrees and with the odd patch of cloud, by the evening the clouds had dissipated and we were left with a clear sky (but no moon thankfully), it was also calm and warm and was still 16 degrees at midnight, only dropping to 13c by dawn.
The breeze did increase at around 2am when we left the site.

The moths were incredible for so early on in the year, with a huge diversity and numbers of certain species was very surprising, the highest numbers were Orange Footman (100+) and Ancylis mitterbacheriana (50+).

We setup 8 traps plus a battery powerered led one, which was switched off early.

By midnight it was hard to keep up, and the decision to drop several traps to ease the unloading of them at packing up time was made.
Both 250w Clear traps again did the best out of all of the traps, but there were different species at the Blended bulbs and the actinic I ran.

Highlights for me were 3 Phylloporia bistrigella, a completely new moth for me (7th,8th & 9th County records), Glyphipterix fuscoviridella & Phyllonorycter lautella.

Best moth of the night went to Ancylis upupana found in Trevor's trap, a second for the County of Herts and not seen here since 1927!! Incredible.
This is a really rare moth even in neighbouring Counties (1 record in Beds & 2 in Essex).

There is still one Elachista and two tigmella species pending dissections.

Below is the list that we managed on the trip.

Catch Report - Bramfield Woods - Central Herts - 8 traps - 3x 125w MV Trap, 2x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap, 2x 160w MBT Trap & 40w U-Tube + 15w Actinic tube & 15w Synergetic tube Trap

69 Macro species & 62 Micro species - 131 species in total

Macro Moths

Alder Moth 6
Angle Shades 2
Barred Hook-tip 1
Brimstone Moth 2
Broken-barred Carpet 5
Brown Rustic 1
Brown Silver Line 30+
Buff Ermine 2
Buff-tip 5
Chocolate-tip 1
Clay Triple lines 10
Clouded-bordered Brindle 3
Common Carpet 2
Common Marbled Carpet 5
Common Pug 1
Common Swift 15
Common Wainscot 3
Common White Wave 5
Coxcomb Prominent 5
Cream Wave 4
Dwarf Pug 30+
Flame Shoulder 10
Foxglove Pug 1
Green Carpet 10
Green Silver-lines 12
Grey-pine Carpet 5
Heart & Dart 10
Iron Prominent 5
Large Nutmeg 8
Least Black Arches 5
Lesser Swallow Prominent 2
Light Emerald 10
Lime Hawk-moth 5
Maiden's Blush 8
Marbled Minor 5
Nut-tree Tussock 5
Oak Hook-tip 8
Oak-tree Pug 1
Ochreous Pug 10
Orange Footman 100+
Pale Oak Beauty 3
Pale Prominent 4
Pale Tussock 20
Peacock Moth 1
Pebble Hook-tip 3
Pebble Prominent 2
Pine Beauty 2
Pine Hawk-moth 2
Poplar Hawk-moth 4
Poplar Lutestring 10
Red-green Carpet 1
Red Twin-spot Carpet 1
Rustic Shoulder-knot 3
Scalloped Hazel 2
Scorched Carpet 1
Scorched Wing 5
Seraphim 15
Shuttle-shaped Dart 3
Silver-ground Carpet 1
Small Waved Umber 1
Small White Wave 20
Speckled Yellow 1
Spruce Carpet 20
Swallow Prominent 2
Tawny-barred Angle 8
Treble Lines 5
White Ermine 5
Yellow-barred Brindle 1

Micro Moths

Acleris logiana 1
Aethes smeathmanniana 1
Agapeta hamana 1
Alabonia geoferella 1
Alucita hexadactyla 1
Ancylis mitterbacheriana 50+
Ancylis upupana 1
Aphomia sociella 2
Argyresthia conjugella 5
Bucculatrix ulmella 5
Bucculatrix nigricomella 1
Caloptilia alchimiella 10
Cameraria ohridella 2
Capua vulgana 6
Celypha lacunana 5
Coleophora sp white 100+
Coleophora trifolii 1
Crambus lathoniellus 5
Cydia fagiglandana 20
Dichrorampha sequana 1
Elachista argentella 1
Emmetia marginea 10
Endrosis sarcitrella 2
Epinotia bilunana 1
Epinotia demarniana 2
Epinotia rubiginosana 12
Epinotia subocellana 1
Epinotia tetraquetrana 10
Esperia sulphurella 1
Eulia ministrana 3
Glyphipterix fuscoviridella 1
Glyphipterix forsterella 5
Glyphipterix simpliciella 2
Incurvaria masculella 1
Incurvaria oehlmanniella 2
Lobesia reliquana 15
Micropterix aruncella 1
Micropterix calthella 2
Mompha subbistrigella 1
Monopis weaverella 15
Notocelia cynosbatella 5
Nemapogon cloacella 1
Nematopogon schwarziellus 1
Pammene albuginana 1
Parornix sp 5
Phyllonorycter lautella 1
Phyllonorycter messaniella 5
Phyllonorycter tenerella 2
Phyllonorycter trifasciella 1
Phyllonorycter quercifoliella 1
Phylloporia bistrigella 3 [NEW]
Plutella porrectella 1
Ptycholoma lecheana 2
Rhyacionia pinivorana 20+
Scoparia ambigualis 2
Strophedra nitidana 5
Strophedra weirana 1
Swammerdamia caesiella 1
Syndemis musculana 20
Teleiodes luculella 3
Tinea trinotella 1
Tischeria ekebladella 10

250w Clear Tubular MV Robinson Trap

Actinic on the grassy ride

Alder Moth

Ancylis mitterbacheriana

Ancylis upupana - Trevor Brownsell

Epinotia bilunana

Lobesia reliquana

Phyllonorycter lautella

Phylloporia bistrigella

Rhyacionia pinivorana