Friday 12 September 2014

Bystock Moths


Canary-shouldered Thorn - the most popular species trapped last night - 3 in total.

I ran the old moth trap with a great crowd of DWT members at Bystock reserve last night. With clear skies and cool temperatures the catch was low but some super-looking moths made up for that. The most common species attracted to the light was Square-spot Rustic but I forgot to keep one to photograph. The most unusual species was the fairly localised  Horse Chestnut but it's hardly the most impressive-looking. A Tawny-barred Angle escaped before I had a chance to photograph it. We also managed to trap a bloody huge Hornet and a Water-boatman (?) 'dry-paddled' around on the white sheet at the base of the trap!
A thoroughly enjoyable evening with thanks to all those involved, especially Derek for getting it all organised.


Light Emerald


Brimstone


Purple-bar


Flounced Rustic


Lesser Yellow Underwing


Setaceous Hebrew Character


Horse Chestnut

4 comments:

  1. I ran an actinic light off a battery in a wood just north of Tiverton last week and Hornets kept coming in all the while which made me right nervous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Andrew - that's interesting, I've never had one in trap before though I have seen wasps. The water boatman was very odd - do they fly or have I seen something else and mis-identified it?
    All the best,
    Matt

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Matt, It is normal to get Water Boatmen in moth traps. I suppose the closer to water you are the more you will get. I get one or two during warmer weather in our garden trap. Usually they are the smaller ones and yes, they do fly.

    Regards,
    Andrew.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Matt for a great night. Learnt a bit more, just need to retain the new info! Clare

    ReplyDelete