Bramfield Woods - Field Trip - 20/04/21

With not much cooking in the garden, it was time to head to the woods again.

 

With a warm day hovering at around 18c and dominant cloud cover by the afternoon, it felt quite humid, and I was sure it would be a bumper session as cloud was predicted overnight for the most part of it.

Well they got it wrong...again!

 

The cloud was gone by the time I had pulled the cord on the generator and I was left with a bright 'Waxing Gibbous' of a moon overhead.

The temperature did hold up until around 11pm, when it got deathly cold and by the time I had packed up at midnight it was just 5 degrees.

The moths were extremely slow to come to any of the lights, I found myself pacing around just waiting for them to arrive. On this date two years ago, we recorded over 200 moths of 53 species, alas it wasn't to be that good, but a pleasing 25 species were recorded over 3 and a half hours of lights on.

I think I was also a little early for any of the specialist pine feeders.

Highlights included a some really fresh moths, Powdered Quaker, and a Brown Silver-line that almost looked like it was fresh out of the mold, the foodplant Bracken is abundant here.

It was also great to see a dark form of the Least Black Arches, not a common moth for me.

On the micro front, a Eriocrania species will need to be dissected (probably sangii) and one of my faves, just for it's mouthful of a name, Semioscopsis steinkelleriana.

The weather this Spring really has been against us here in the East, it hasn't ever felt like it's got going yet.

There were no generator woes this time thankfully!

Below is the list.

Catch Report - Bramfield Woods - Central Herts - 20/04/21 - 4 traps - 1x 250w Clear Tubular MV Robinson Trap, 1x 125w Clear MV Trap,1x 160w MBT Trap, 1x Twin 15w Actinic/Synergetic tube Trap

Macro Moths

Brindled Pug 12
Brown Silver Line 1
Chestnut 1
Clouded Drab 2
Common Quaker 5
Early Grey 2
Engrailed 1
Frosted Green 14
Hebrew Character 3
Least Black Arches 2
Lunar Marbled Brown 8
Nut-tree Tussock 1
Pine Beauty 1
Powdered Quaker 1
Purple Thorn 2
Red Chestnut 2
Small Quaker 4
Twin-spotted Quaker 2 

Micro Moths

Acleris literana 1
Diurnea fagella 1
Dyseriocrania subpurpurella 11
Emmelima monodactyla 1
Eriocrania sangii sp 1
Phyllonorycter messaniella 2
Semioscopsis steinkelleriana 2

125w Clear MV Robinson Trap and the 160w MBT Trap in the background

Acleris literana

Actinic Trap

Brown Silver-line

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella f.fastuosella

Eriocrania pos sangii TBC

Least Black Arches

Powdered Quaker

Semioscopsis steinkelleriana