Chippenham Fen - 14/06/19

I got a very kind invite to Chippenham Fen on Friday night from James-Harding Morris.

Having had a little experience with Reed-bed habitats before, namely Sawbridgeworth Marsh and Rye Meads, I had an inkling of what might grace the traps.

Also two target species for the year at the site were hopefully going to show up, both would be new species for me.

We amassed 10 traps between 5 of us, also being accompanied by three of the workers. 

Despite the deluge of rain for most of the week, the site wasn't as boggy as I expected, meaning the levels must drain off fairly quickly over the peat and clay soil.

I set up 3 of my traps line astern along one of the tracks, and turned on the lights at around 9:30pm.
The sky was fairly light for even an hour later owing to the clear sky, but luckily the temperature did hold up fairly well despite the clear conditions.

Some really nice moths were observed at all of the lights. Silver Barred was literally the first moth in and one of two of the target species for the night, in fact it was my only example over my three lights.

Reed Leopard quickly followed, this appears to be common at this site as I counted over 20 individuals, a really unusual looking moth.

All in all, 7 species were new for me! Including Glyphipterix thrasonella, which is new for my UK records having previously seen them in France. 

I started packing up at 2am as tiredness was kicking in and I knew I had an impending hour drive home.

61 species was fairly repectable but numbers were a little low, of coirse none of this matters when the quality of species are present.

All in all a fantastic experience of a well managed habitat.

Here is the total list

Macro Moths : 35 species
Micro Moths : 26 species

Total : 61 species

Catch Report - 14/06/19 - Chippenham Fen - Cambridgeshire -1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x twin 20w Wemite Actinic & 40w Actinic Trap & 1x 160w Mercury Blended Robinson Trap - 3 traps in total

Macro Moths

Brimstone Moth
Clouded Border
Clouded Brindle
Common Carpet
Common Swift
Common Wainscot
Common Wave
Common White Wave
Cream-bordered Green Pea
Dark Arches
Four-dotted Footman
Ghost Moth
Green Carpet
Grey Pine Carpet
Heart & Dart
Large Nutmeg
Large Yellow Underwing
Light Arches
Lime Speck Pug
Maiden's Blush
Marbled Minor
Marbled White spot
May Highflyer
Orange Footman
Pale Prominent
Reed Leopard
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Shaded Pug
Silver Barred
Small Clouded Brindle
Smoky Wainscot
Striped Wainscot
Treble Lines
Turnip Moth
White Point
Willow Beauty

Micro Moths

Aethes rubigana
Anania perlucidalis
Apotomis turbidana
Bactra sp
Brachmia inornatella
Cataclysta lemnata
Chilo phragmitella
Crambus lathoniellus
Crambus pascuella
Elachista albidella
Elophila nymphaeata
Emmelina sp prob monodactyla
Ephestia sp
Epinotia bilunana
Epinotia demarniana
Ethmia dodecea
Glyphipterix thrasonella
Mompha terminella
Nematopogon metaxella
Notocelia trimaculana
Plutella xylostella
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
Pterophorus pentadactyla
Scoparia ambigualis
Scoparia pyralella
Tortrix viridana

Chilo phragmitella

Trap Positions

Chippenham Fen

160w MBT Trap

Mompha terminella

Reed Leopard

Silver Barred

Striped Wainscot

Striped Wainscot

Four-dotted Footman

Elachista albidella

Cream-bordered Green Pea

Chilo phragmitella

Brachmia inornatella