An evening, public event looking for and at moths was held last Friday night, in Aberrhiw, based in the grounds of the globally celebrated Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture (ALoMoS).
ALoMoS. visitwalesimages.thedms.co.uk
The museum was approached in early Spring for the possibility of a collaborative public event, combining art and citizen science during the school holidays.
The event was part of a new approach by the moth group to engage people with nature, in line with the Pathways to Nature funding agreement, from which the moth group received grant funding via Powys County Council last winter.
ALoMos https://andrewloganmuseum.org/ has a large and diverse following of its own fans. Therefore it was decided to make this a ticketed event, to control attendance numbers for practical health and safety reasons. The museum was also specially to be opened for conveniences and for guests to look around the wonderful, flamboyant displays.
As the evening began, traps were set out in various locations around the village. In the Woodland Walk (showcasing its new pathways), St.Bueno's Churchyard with its lofty Limes, the recreation ground car park and on the bank of the Afon Rhiw. A good mixture of habitats. The white sheet was located beside the gazebo HQ in the museum car park, where there was sufficient space for a crowd of up to 40 people to safely assemble.
Starting at 9pm, an introduction to moths was given by Phil McGregor from the moth group and then attendees were encouraged to disperse around the village to collect moths from the traps and bring them back for identification. Volunteers from the museum very kindly chaperoned people to where the traps were located.
A clearing sky allowed temperatures initially to drop a bit too quickly so it was a bit of a slow start for moth activity. First moth of the night was a micro moth Patania ruralis or Mother of Pearl on the white sheet, followed by quite a few Large Yellow Underwing, Flame Shoulder, Dingy Footman and other common macro species. By around 22.30pm the temperature had stabilised at about 10c so activity started to pick up. Cataclysta lemnata was brought in from the river bank trap, provoking an interesting discussion regarding the unusual, semi-aqautic habit of the larvae, constructing a floating case around itself to enable feeding on duckweed, its food plant.
A steady trickle of moths followed including Catoptria falsella (Chequered Grass-veneer), July Highflier and Small Angle Shades.
Catoptria falsella (Chequered Grass-veneer). P McGregor
By 11.45pm most of the group had sensibly retired home while a few extra-keen lingerers held out just long enough to see a lovely Gold Spot retrieved from the churchyard trap.
Gold Spot. P McGregor
With a fair bit of packing up to do, 01.45am was chosen as the time to close down the event. Typically, with everyone else departed, the colours of the night, in keeping with the fabulous museum displays, emerged as traps were slowly packed away. Blood-vein, Sallow Kitten, Oak Hook-tip, Magpie and Black Arches amongst the belated crowd pleasers.
Blood-vein. P McGregor
The event was a great success with 37 attendees, many of whom had never been to a moth event before.
41 species were recorded, 33 being macro. The full event species list is available HERE.
Equipment used: 3 x Skinner's 15w green phosphor, 1 x Skinners 125wMV and 1 x 125wMV white sheet.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to attend and contribute to a fun event. It was a fantastic turn out!
A very big thank you in particular to Judy Mitchinson (Project Co-ordinator) & Sienna Holmes (Project Curator) at ALoMoS for their part in organising/running and publicising the event. Thank you also to the three wonderfully colourful and fun volunteer event chaperones, Julie Dawson (ALoMoS Education Officer), George and Terri.
Event organisers and volunteers
Thank you to Deborah Kent, a Berriew Community Councillor, for enabling light trap locations in the woodland walk and recreation ground and to Paulette Gower, Clergy, St Buenos Church for access to place a trap in the churchyard.
Finally, thank you to Butterfly Conservation for the provision of insurance for the event.
The next public moth-ing event is to be held at Llangynog on Saturday 23rd August at 20.00pm. We will be targeting Ashworth's Rustic on the slopes of Craig Rhiwarth. More details for this event will be posted soon on the MMG blog and facebook page.
Phil McGregor.
