Field Trip - Hexton Chalk Pit - 25/05/17

Thursday night saw me trapping at Hexton Chalk Pit for the first time this year after doing a few daytime forays for moths and finding a few bits and pieces, it was time to go all out and spread 5 traps over the reserve. I was joined by Trevor for a bit and Tony popped by to see how things were going.

The day had been very warm and sunny and mid-twenties by 4pm, there was however no cloud cover but with a warm breeze it was hardly going to get cold and in fact it was still 14 degrees at 2am when I left the reserve. The traps out of the breeze did fair better and by midnight, the exposed trap on the chalk hill did take a pounding and most of the moths ended up about 3 metres from the trap having been blown there.

Numbers were pretty good and the species kept coming in, heck if I had stayed until dawn I probably could have added another 15 species I reckon but I had work the next day and getting to bed at 2.30am was late enough!

Some cracking species were netted before the lights were turned on, Bucculatrix bechsteinella (only my second ever), Elachista biatomella (new to me and a rare moth in the County only having one previous record), a shiney green moth which is the uncommon Eulamprotes unicolorella and Rhopobota stagnana (another new moth to me).

I joked to Trevor that we may as well pack up now after the successful half an hour of sweeping!

Other good moths that later came to the lights were Wood Carpet, Netted Pug, Anania fuscalis, Alder Moth, Marbled Coronet and Satyr Pug.

The best moth for me if correct would be Syncopacma sangiella, Graeme will look at it and if it is it will be a County first record.

It was also very pleasing to see that Anania fuscalis is still hanging on there after re-discovering it 181 years later in 2015.

Still reeling from seeing so many moths and I hope to be back in a few weeks.

Catch Report - 25/05/17 - Hexton Chalk Pit - North-west Herts - 5 traps in total - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap 1x 80w Actinic Trap

97 species

Macro Moths

2x Alder Moth 10x Brimstone Moth 1x Broken-barred Carpet 5x Brown Rustic 2x Burnished Brass 3x Clouded Border 3x Clouded Silver 15x Common Carpet 4x Common Marbled Carpet 5x Common Pug 40+ Common Swift 2x Fern 1x Figure of Eighty 1x Flame 15x Flame Shoulder 4x Freyer's Pug 30+ Grass Rivulet 20+ Green Carpet 1x Green Pug 1x Green Silver-lines 5x Grey Pug 12x Ingrailed Clay 5x Large Nutmeg 5x Latticed Heath 10x Light Brocade 20x Light Emerald 1x Lime-speck Pug 1x Marbled Coronet 10x Marbled Minor 3x Marbled White-spot 1x Middle-barred Minor 18x Mottled Pug 1x Mottled Rustic 3x Netted Pug 1x Nutmeg 5x Orange Footman 2x Pale Oak Beauty 1x Pale Prominent 15x Pale Tussock 1x Pebble Hook-tip 3x Peppered Moth 2x Pug id (to be gen det) 5x Purple Bar 1x Red-green Carpet 2x Red Twin-spot Carpet 5x Rustic Shoulder-knot 5x Satyr Pug 2x Scorched Wing 5x Setaceous Hebrew Character 50+ Shaded Pug 3x Shears 2x Shuttle-shaped Dart 3x Silver-ground Carpet 1x Small Phoenix 1x Small Purple-barred 8x Small Square-spot 5x Small Waved Umber 5x Straw Dot 1x Tawny Marbled Minor 1x Treble-bar 30+ Treble Lines 4x Waved Umber 5x White Ermine 1x White Pinion-spotted 2x White-spotted Pug 1x Willow Beauty 5x Wood Carpet 2x Yellow-barred Brindle

Micro Moths

1x Agapeta hamana 1x Agonopterix arenella 2x Anania fuscalis 1x Bucculatrix bechsteinella 1x Caloptilia robustella/alchimiella 1x Celypha lacunana 200+ Cochylimorpha straminea 1x Cochylis hybridella 2x Crambus lathoniellus 10x Elachista argentella 1x Elachista biatomella [NEW!] 1x Epinotia subocellana 2x Endrosis sarcitrella 2x Eudonia pallida 2x Eulamprotes unicolorella or Scythris fallacella (to be gen det) 2x Eupoecilia angustana 1x Mompha epilobiella 1x Monopis weaverella 1x Nematopogon swammerdamella 3x Notocelia cynosbatella 5x Notocelia trimaculana 1x Rhopobota stagnana [NEW!] 15x Scoparia ambigualis 30+ Scoparia pyralella 1x Syncopacma sangiella pos [NEW!] (to be gen det) 2x Syndemis musculana