Wednesday 20 July 2016

Merthyr Mawr last night

Paul and I were accompanied by Graham Anderson for a long hot session at Merthyr Mawr NNR last night. At 3am I was dressed only in t-shirt, shorts and sandals, and the temperature was still in the 20s.

Given the conditions it wasn't surprising that the moths came thick and fast. I only ran my MV for two hours (due to an initial generator problem) and had around 100 species, with quite a few extras at my 6W actinics. There were lots of moths at Paul's MV lamp too.

Among the macros there was nothing as exciting as Chris's Star-wort, but a few nice records including Shore Wainscot, Brown Scallop, Brussels Lace (in good numbers), Muslin Footman, Round-winged Muslin, Beautiful Hook-tip, Haworth's Pug (numerous), Scarlet Tiger, Garden Tiger, Small Purple-barred and Satin Lutestring.

The micros were excellent and included several Chionodes distinctella (first Glamorgan record since 1979?), as well as Gypsonoma oppressana, Pseudopostegia crepusculella, Brachmia blandella, Agrolamprotes micella, Pyrausta ostrinalis (30 in one heath trap), Pyrausta cingulata, Yponomeuta plumbella, Bryotropha umbrosella, Mompha lacteella, Celypha cespitana and Eudonia delunella. A few photos below, but Paul will have better ones of many of these species.

Gypsonoma oppressana
Chionodes distinctella
Chionodes distinctella (different specimen)

Bryotropha umbrosella
Possible pale form of Bryotropha umbrosella (f. mundella)

Other insects included several glowing glow-worms and this rather smart caddis Grammotaulius nigropunctatus.

No comments:

Post a Comment