13th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, Hertfordshire

13^th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, Hertfordshire

I am not sure if it was the phenomenally hot day on Saturday, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, or the fact that this trip was to one of the county hot-spots for all things ecological, but we did have a staggering 27 people turn up for the Herts Moth Group trip to Broxbourne Wood National Nature Reserve on 13^th July 2013. The West Car Park was completely filled; at one point a police car nosed in, looked, probably thought we were a bunch of weirdos and immediately drove off having turned on his blue lights! In addition to myself, five other people had brought traps and so, as darkness approached, we made use of the fact that the wood has a long and straight ride up the middle; traps were loaded into my Landrover and dropped off at intervals along the ride where they were set up by their owners. In all we ended up with 10 lights here, stretched over a linear distance of 700 metres but, of course, dipping into the sides and various clearings. I confess that I was rather lazy and only one of these (the furthest from the car park) was mine, but as it turned out we really did not need the other five I had in the vehicle. Once these lights were fired up, I also set up a sheet on the side of the Landrover in the West Car Park. People were then free to wander along the trap line and/or stay at the sheet and see what came in.

Almost immediately, the moths started coming and they were still coming as the last four of us packed up the last trap at just after 3 am (most people having left in stages between midnight and about 2 am). I am pretty sure that if we had stayed another hour until daybreak we could easily have added a dozen or more further species to the list, but as it is we had to make do with a total of 208 moth species! Very recently, I was moaning that “hundred nights” were a thing of the past (and of course, when moth-ers talk of “hundred nights” they mean 100 macros). Well … our macro total on Saturday night was 116 species. The astute will realise that this means we had 92 species of micro, but to my knowledge there are at least 3 further species awaiting dissection and it is possible that when this list appears that someone will e-mail me with others that I have overlooked.  

There are some rather “good” moths for Hertfordshire in the list – use the Herts Moth Book (or if you are under 50, the web site) to look them up.  In number order, I might perhaps suggest you look up, amongst others, 397: Glyphipterix thrasonella (rare in the county); 1088: Pseudosciaphila branderiana (very local); 1449: Elegia similella (nationally scarce); 1494: Capperia britanniodactyla (last recorded in the county at this site); 1771a: Thera cupressata Cypress Carpet (recent colonist – first county record was in 2006); 1943: Hypomecis roboraria Great Oak Beauty (extremely local – we had several in the traps and at the sheet); 2039: Atolmis rubricollis Red-necked Footman (almost certainly part of the recent immigration – we had 6). Two species, in the form of 0926: Phalonidia manniana and 1375: Ostrinia nubilalis have recently been split into two species each – we have retained specimens but not yet looked at these critically. It was good to have both Aethes cnicana and Aethes rubigana so they could be compared and there were other species pairs too, which made the evening informative as well as fun (e.g., Clouded Brindle and Clouded Bordered-brindle). Happily, the numbers of individuals of each species appear to have resumed a near normal setting, although there were singles of just a few species. There were several Satin Beauties, mostly in my trap at the far end of the line and at the end of the session around 2.30 am. Here too, I am told by others, Violet Ground Beetles (Carabus violaceus) were making off with large numbers of Leopard Moths that had not made it all the way to the safety of the trap! Good numbers of Great Oak Beauty emphasise the nature of the woodland habitat at Broxbourne.

Those marked with an asterisk (*) have been named by genitalia dissection. Thanks to all the trap operators who gave me lists of moths from their traps throughout the course of the evening. Please tell me if I missed anything.

C.W.Plant

Below I have listed the species that were present in my traps.

As the group was spread out, my traps got different species to what the others got, the best species by far were 2 scarce Map-winged Swifts that came to the Actinic.

Also the rare micros wee very pleasing to see in my traps.

12/07/13 – Broxbourne Woods - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap run from 9.45pm until 3.00am

Ghost Moth

Map-winged Swift

Tischeria ekebladella

Leopard Moth

Caloptilia alchimiella

Argyresthia goedartella

Scythropia crataegella

 Yponomeuta evonymella

Paraswammerdamia nebulella [NEW!]      

Cedestis gysseleniella [NEW!]

Prays fraxinella

Plutella xylostella

 Ypsolopha ustella

Coleophora flavipennella

Batia unitella

Carcina quercana

Pseudatemelia flavifrontella [NEW!]

Parachronistis albiceps [NEW!]

Teleiodes vulgella

Teleiodes luculella

Blastodacna hellerella

Phalonidia manniana

Agapeta hamana

Aethes cnicana

Cochylis atricapitana

Pandemis cerasana

 Pandemis heparana

 Archips podana

 Archips xylosteana

 Lozotaeniodes formosanus

 Epagoge grotiana

 Ditula angustiorana

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

Cnephasia asseclana*

Aleimma loeflingiana

Tortrix viridana

Spatalistis bifasciana [NEW!]

Celypha lacunana

Hedya pruniana

Hedya nubiferana

Hedya salicella

Apotomis turbidana

Ancylis achatana

 Zeiraphera isertana

Epiblema uddmanniana

Eucosma cana

Eucosma obumbratana

Spilonota ocellana

Rhyacionia pinivorana

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Crambus lathoniellus

Catoptria pinella

Dipleurina lacustrata

Eurrhypara hortulata

Perinephela lancealis

Udea prunalis

Udea olivalis

 Endotricha flammealis

 Phycita roborella

Ephestia parasitella

Capperia britanniodactyla [NEW!]

Pterophorus pentadactyla

Adaina microdactyla

Drinker

Pebble Hook-tip

Peach Blossom

Buff Arches

Figure of Eighty

Blotched Emerald

Common Emerald

Clay Triple-lines

Blood-vein

Least Carpet

Small Fan-footed Wave

Treble Brown Spot

Riband Wave

Silver-ground Carpet

Common Carpet

Barred Straw

Common Marbled Carpet

Barred Yellow

Blue-bordered Carpet

Grey Pine Carpet

 July Highflyer

Small Rivulet

Foxglove Pug

Wormwood Pug

Currant Pug

Grey Pug

Green Pug

Double-striped Pug

Small White Wave

Small Yellow Wave

Clouded Border

Tawny-barred Angle

Brown Silver-line

Bordered Beauty

Lilac Beauty

Swallow-tailed Moth

Peppered Moth

Willow Beauty

Mottled Beauty

Satin Beauty [NEW!]

Great Oak Beauty

Pale Oak Beauty

Engrailed

Brindled White-spot

Bordered White

Common White Wave

Common Wave

Clouded Silver

Light Emerald

Barred Red

Poplar Hawk-moth

Elephant Hawk-moth

Buff-tip

Lobster Moth

Iron Prominent

Pebble Prominent

Maple Prominent

Pale Prominent

Yellow-tail

Rosy Footman

Red-necked Footman

Scarce Footman

Buff Footman

Common Footman

Buff Ermine

Short-cloaked Moth

Heart and Club

Flame

Flame Shoulder

Large Yellow Underwing

Ingrailed Clay

Double Square-spot

Smoky Wainscot

Minor Shoulder-knot

Poplar Grey

Miller

Grey Dagger

Bird's Wing

Small Angle Shades

Dark Arches

Light Arches

Clouded-bordered Brindle

Clouded Brindle

Dusky Brocade

Rufous Minor*

Tawny Marbled Minor

Small Dotted Buff

Uncertain

Marbled White Spot

Scarce Silver-lines

Oak Nycteoline

Burnished Brass

Beautiful Golden Y

Spectacle

Beautiful Hook-tip

Straw Dot

Snout

Fan-foot

Small Fan-foot

Birds Wing

Bordered White

Capperia britanniodactyla

 

Cedestis gysseleniella

Clay Triple-lines

Ebulea crocealis

Map-winged Swift

Parachronistis albiceps

Paraswammerdamia nebulella

Pseudatemelia flavifrontella

Rosy Footman

Satin Beauty

Small Dotted Buff

Spatalistis bifasciana