Roughdown Common - Field Trip - 02/06/14

I was joined by David, Roger and Steve at Roughdown Common for our second outing to this site this year. We were probably a few weeks to early for peak flying species, but nevertheless it was great to see some species a little earlier than we have recorded them before (namely Snout and Double Square-spot) Despite the warm and cloudy conditions, we had to wait a good hour and a half after lights on before we actually started seeing some variety which was a bit of a surprise as we were an hour into darkness with less than 15 species jotted down. But at 11pm things went rather mad and the deluge started as the breeze dropped off. By 1am the sky was breaking and there was a chill in the air and it was time to pack the 4 traps up.

Highlights were a single Pammene albuginana, confidently confirmed by the County recorder as the 3rd record for Hertforshire of recent times, although the hindwing needs checking for certainty. We also got an early Coronet and 3 of the pretty metallic Eulamprotes unicolorella, which seems to be quite scarce?

All in all a pleasing night, if we were a few weeks later we may have done better with species count.

Catch Report - 02/06/14 - Roughdown Common - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

Macro Moths

1x Clouded Border 20+ Common Swift 25+ Clouded Silver 10+ Grey Pug 5x Mottled Pug 3x Silver-ground Carpet 2x Ghost Moth (2 Fem) 10+ Common Pug 5x Green Carpet 2x Tawny Marbled Minor 8x Marbled Minor 1x Middle-barred Minor 10+ Heart & Dart 3x Straw Dot 2x Small Elephant Hawk-moth 15x Common Marbled Carpet 5x Flame Shoulder 2x Clouded Brindle 2x Pale Oak Beauty 2x Clouded-bordered Brindle (1 ab combusta) 2x Buff Ermine 1x Lime Hawk-moth 1x Freyer’s Pug 2x Nutmeg

2x Small Square-spot

1x Oak nycteoline 1x Green Pug 1x Flame 3x Ingrailed Clay 1x Brown Rustic 1x Burnished Brass 2x Mottled Beauty 1x Coronet 1x Scorched Carpet 4x Peppered Moth 1x Pale Tussock 2x Small Phoenix 3x Middle-barred Minor 3x White Ermine 2x Broken-barred Carpet 6x Treble Lines 1x Pale Prominent 2x Purple Bar 3x Marbled White-spot 2x Brimstone Moth 1x Willow Beauty 2x Common Carpet 1x Least Black Arches 2x Silver-Y 3x Lime-speck Pug 1x Snout 1x Light Emerald 1x Buff-tip 8x Light Brocade 1x Common White Wave 1x Double Square-spot 2x Garden Carpet

Micro Moths

1x Pammene albuginana [NEW!] 2x Epinotia subocellana 15+ Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 40+ Cochylimorpha straminea 1x Glyphipterix simpliciella 5x Scoparia ambigualis 2x Adela degeerella 4x Udea olivalis 1x Tischeria marginea 1x Phycitodes sp 3x Eulamprotes unicolorella 1x Endrosis sarcitrella 2x Agonopterix arenella 1x Argyresthia abistria 1x Coleophora sp 1x Nematopogon schwarziellus 1x Aphomia sociella 2x Plutella xylostella 3x Celypha lacunana 1x Cnephasia sp 1x Caloptilia syringella 1x Tinea trinotella 1x Epiblema cynosbatella 2x Syndemis musculana 1x Teleoides luculella 10x Pandemis heperana 1x Caloptilia alchimiella 1x Agapeta zoegana 2x Epiblema trimaculana 2x Argyrotaenia ljungiana 5x Scoparia pyralella 2x Metzneria metzneriella