Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - Field - 02/10/14

Bit late with this post as I have had a busy week writing other bits and bobs and sorting through my yearly records has been no easy feat.
Last week I was joined by David and Roger for our final field trip of the year, mainly because the weather is probably sooner or later (has) going to turn awful, and as the nights draw in now I would be fighting with the rush hour traffic out of Stevenage and on the A1.
The night was pretty much perfect to start with, very warm for the time of year at about 20 degrees at sundown, although the promised cloud dissipated and we were left with a cool clear sky with a bright moon.

A few hours is all we trapped for as the moths just stopped flying by about 11pm and it was time to pack up.

We packed the three traps running off of the generator first, and found nothing much of interest apart from very late examples of Marbled White-spot, Beautiful Hook-tip and Straw Dot, highlight was a year first Merveille du Jour.

We trundled back to the old barn where we were running two more traps from the electricity power points, it was starting to feel very chill indeed and coats were done up to the chin and hats adorned.
In the second to last trap it became apparent that our efforts were all worth it. A stunning Cypress Pug was sitting on the outside egg trays around the 160w MBT Trap.
A great record and a first for all three of us, indeed it is a scarce moth that is slowly spreading from the West and South.
Full catch below, from 5 traps.

Catch Report - 02/10/14 - Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Traps, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap, 1x40w Lucent Suitcase Trap & 1x80w Actinic/26w CFL Suitcase Trap.

Macro Moths


1x Cypress Pug [NEW!]
5x Beaded Chestnut
1x Beautiful Hook-tip
1x Brimstone Moth
1x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
1x Brown-spot Pinion
2x Common Marbled Carpet
1x Grey-pine Carpet
2x Large Yellow Underwing
1x Lesser Yellow Underwing
11x Lunar Underwing
1x Marbled White-spot
2x Merveille du Jour
1x Orange Sallow
2x Pink-barred Sallow
1x Red-green Carpet
2x Sallow
3x Setaceous Hebrew Character
1x Snout
3x Square-spot Rustic
1x Straw Dot

Micro Moths

1x Acleris sparsana
1x Agriphila geniculea
1x Carcina quercana
5x Epiphyas postvittana
1x Agonopterix heracliana
1x Pandemis heparana
1x Plutella xylostella
1x Aleimma loeflingiana
5x Acleris rhombana

Cypress Pug

Merveille du Jour

Pandemis heparana