[1943] Great Oak Beauty (Hypomecis roboraria) and Pale Oak Beauties

Bramfield Woods - 01/06/19

 

On Saturday night, and after cancelling the previous Thursday’s trip out due to ill health, I was ready to go again with a few better nights sleep under my belt.

Saturday during the day had been a right ole’ scorcher, with highs of 28 degrees and plenty of warm sunshine. We also had quite a bit of cloud bubble up an hour into the session, and the relative humidity was extremely high.

Thus, the moths responded very well to all manner of spectrums of UV, we ran 10 lights in total across the central and Eastern areas of Bramfield Woods, positioning nearly all of the lights out of site of one another.

 

An hour in and with that increasing cloud cover, the traps were going bonkers at just before 11pm, so much so, that it was hard to keep up with what had just came in and then noting new arrivals as quickly as I could type up my list.

 

Trevor’s Traps in the far East did very well for micros, and so did a few of mine in the central/eastern section.

Towards the West more, Colin’s two MV’s rustled up lots of new for site Macro Moths and although originally thinking there weren’t many of the smaller moths present, upon inspection he was pleasantly surprised.

 

Stand-out Macro Moth species for me were Larch Pug (Seen only once in Essex previously in 2009), Grey Arches (Again just one record from Hexton Chalk Pit in 2014) and Two Great Oak Beauties, which seem to be getting earlier and earlier each year.

 

Micro Moths was where the night was really, with the warm conditions lasting all night, the sky and egg trays were full of them! So much so that it was quite tricky wading through hundreds of Coleophora and Stigmella’s to find the interesting stuff… o gawd we must have missed heaps I reckon, as we still continued to pack up gone 3am!

A worn Pug that Colin took home with him, after dissection turned out to be the very rare Campanula Pug!

 

Best moth of the night went to the scarce Pyralid adventive species, Agrota nemoralis.. a new addition to the Herts list and one I had only seen previously in France before, what a stunning looking moth it was.

This was backed up by scarce Pine moths such as Cedestis subfasciella, Cydia conicolana, Elegia similella and Pammene ochsenheimeriana.

 

Also three specimens of the scarce Tortrix Ancylis diminutana were noteworthy, a species I added to the Bedfordshire list only last year.

 

Here is the total list so far

 

Macro Moths : 89 species

Micro Moths : 112 species

 

Total : 201 species!

 

Catch Report - 01/06/19 - Bramfield Woods - Hertfordshire - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap, 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x twin 20w Wemite Actinic & 40w Actinic Trap & 1x 160w Mercury Blended Robinson Trap - 5 traps in total + 3 extra traps provided by Trevor and 2 extra traps provided by Colin (10 in total).

 

Macro Moths

 

Alder Moth

Angle Shades

Blood-vein

Bordered White

Brimstone

Brindled White-spot

Broken-barred Carpet

Brown Rustic

Brown Silver-lines

Buff Ermine

Buff tip

Campanula Pug - GEN DET CWP

Clay Triple-lines

Clouded Border

Clouded Silver

Common Carpet

Common Marbled Carpet

Common Pug

Common Swift

Common Wainscot

Coxcomb Prominent

Cream Wave

Dark Arches

Dwarf Pug

Figure of Eighty

Flame Shoulder

Foxglove Pug

Green Carpet

Grey Arches

Grey-pine Carpet

Grey Pug

Green Pug

Green Silver-lines

Heart & Dart

Large Nutmeg

Large Yellow Underwing

Oak Nycteoline

Light Brocade

Cinnabar

Larch Pug

Least Black Arches

Light Emerald

Lime Hawk-moth

Lime-speck Pug

Maiden's Blush

Marbled Brown

Marbled Minor

Marbled White-spot

Middle barred Minor

Mottled Pug

Nut-tree Tussock

Oak Hook tip

Ochreous Pug

Orange Footman

Pale Oak Beauty

Pale Prominent

Pale Tussock

Peacock Moth

Pebble Hook-tip

Pebble Prominent

Peppered Moth

Poplar Grey

Poplar Lutestring

Puss Moth

Red necked Footman

Riband Wave

Rustic Shoulder knot

Sandy Carpet

Scalloped Hazel

Scalloped Hook tip

Scorched Carpet

Scorched Wing

Seraphim

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Silver-ground Carpet

Single-dotted Wave

Small Fan-foot

Small Phoenix

Small White Wave

Snout

Spruce Carpet

Straw Dot

Tawny-barred Angle

Treble Brown Spot

Treble Lines

Turnip Moth

White Ermine

White Point

Yellow-barred Brindle

 

 

Micro Moths

 

Acrobasis advenella

Adela reamurella

Agapeta hamana

Agrotera nemoralis

Alabonia geoferella

Ancylis diminutana

Ancylis mitterbacheriana

Aphomia sociella

Apotomis turbidana

Aphomia sociella

Agonopterix arenella

Argyresthia brockeella

Argyresthia conjugella

Argyresthia spinosella

Argyresthia trifasciata

Assara terrebrella

Bactra sp

Blastobasis lacticolella

Bucculatrix ulmella

Caloptilia alchimiella - GEN DET CWP

Caloptilia robustella - GEN DET CWP

Caloptilia syringella

Cameraria ohridella

Capua vulgana

Carpatolechia proximella

Cedestis subfasciella

Celypha lacunana

Cnephasia

Cochylimorpha straminea

Cochylis atricapitana

Cochylis nana

Cochylis molliculana

Coleophora sp

Coleophora frischella/alcyonipennella

Coptoptriche marginea

Crambus lathoniellus

Cryptoblabes bistriga

Cydia conicolana

Cydia fagiglandana

Cydia nigricana

Cydia pomonella

Dioryctria schuetzeella

Dioryctria simplicella

Ectoedemia decentella

Elachista albifrontella

Elachista argentella

Elachista cannapenella

Elegia similella

Endrosis sarcitrella

Ephestia sp

Epinotia bilunana

Epinotia demarniana

Epinotia tetraquetrana

Epinotia rubiginosana

Epinotia subocellana

Epiphyas postvittana

Esperia sulphurella

Eulia ministrana

Evergestis forficalis

Glyphipterix forsterella

Grapholita compositella

Gypsonoma dealbana

Hedya nubiferana

Hedya pruniana

Hofmannophila pseudospretella

Incurvaria oehmanniella

Lobesia reliquana

Micropterix aureatella

Monopis laevigella

Monopis weaverella

Nemapogon cloacella

Nemapogon koenigi

Nemophora deegerella

Nematopogon schwarziellus

Nematopogon swammerdamella

Notocelia cynosbatella

Notocelia trimaculana

Notocelia uddmanniana

Orthotaenia undulana

Pammene argyrana

Pandemis cerasana

Pammene ochsenheimeriana

Paraswammerdamia albicapitella

Parornix betulae - GEN DET CWP

Parornix devoniella - GEN DET CWP

Phyllonorycter harisella

Phyllonorycter heegeriella

Phyllonorycter hilarella

Phyllonorycter lautella

Phyllonorycter nicellii - GEN DET CWP

Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae - GEN DET CWP

Plutella xylostella

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

Phtheochroa rugosana

Ptycholoma lecheana

Roeslerstammia erxlebella

Rhyacionia pinivorana

Rhodophaea formosa

Scoparia ambigualis

Scoparia pyralella

Scrobipalpa costella

Spilonota ocellana

Stigmella atricapitella - GEN DET CWP

Strophedra nitidana

Strophedra weirana

Swammerdamia caesiella - GEN DET CWP

Syndemis musculana

Teleoides luculella

Teleiopsis diffinis

Tinea trinotella

Tinea semifulvella

Tischeria ekebladella

Done