Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - Field - 02/10/14 Bit late with this post as I have had a busy week writing other bits and bobs and sorting through my yearly records has been no easy feat. Last week I was joined by David and Roger for our final field trip of the year, mainly because the weather is probably sooner or later (has) going to turn awful, and as the nights draw in now I would be fighting with the rush hour traffic out of Stevenage and on the A1. The night was pretty much perfect to start with, very warm for the time of year at about 20 degrees at sundown, although the promised cloud dissipated and we were left with a cool clear sky with a bright moon.

A few hours is all we trapped for as the moths just stopped flying by about 11pm and it was time to pack up.

We packed the three traps running off of the generator first, and found nothing much of interest apart from very late examples of Marbled White-spot, Beautiful Hook-tip and Straw Dot, highlight was a year first Merveille du Jour.

We trundled back to the old barn where we were running two more traps from the electricity power points, it was starting to feel very chill indeed and coats were done up to the chin and hats adorned. In the second to last trap it became apparent that our efforts were all worth it. A stunning Cypress Pug was sitting on the outside egg trays around the 160w MBT Trap. A great record and a first for all three of us, indeed it is a scarce moth that is slowly spreading from the West and South. Full catch below, from 5 traps.

Catch Report - 02/10/14 - Westbrook Hay - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Traps, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap, 1x40w Lucent Suitcase Trap & 1x80w Actinic/26w CFL Suitcase Trap.

Macro Moths

1x Cypress Pug [NEW!] 5x Beaded Chestnut 1x Beautiful Hook-tip 1x Brimstone Moth 1x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1x Brown-spot Pinion 2x Common Marbled Carpet 1x Grey-pine Carpet 2x Large Yellow Underwing 1x Lesser Yellow Underwing 11x Lunar Underwing 1x Marbled White-spot 2x Merveille du Jour 1x Orange Sallow 2x Pink-barred Sallow 1x Red-green Carpet 2x Sallow 3x Setaceous Hebrew Character 1x Snout 3x Square-spot Rustic 1x Straw Dot

Micro Moths

1x Acleris sparsana 1x Agriphila geniculea 1x Carcina quercana 5x Epiphyas postvittana 1x Agonopterix heracliana 1x Pandemis heparana 1x Plutella xylostella 1x Aleimma loeflingiana