Lake Vyrnwy trapping

I headed off to a forestry track just north of Lake Vyrnwy the other night for some trapping. Had stumbled across the track this winter and thought the habitat looked very interesting. The site has three main aspects: (1) broadleaved scrub surrounding a small stream (made up mainly of birch, also willow, rowan, etc), (2) heather and bilberry surrounding the track and (3) spruce plantation either side of the valley.

The midges were pretty bad; very glad to have my full-body midge suit with me. This worked pretty well though did have it's problems: reduced visibility meant at times I had chose between being bitten or not seeing the moths! And at one point a Poplar Hawk-moth managed to get itself caught inside the hood! The night was fairly cool to begin with but as it clouded over, the temperature steadily rose throughout the night. Of course this meant the midges were worst at the point I was going through and pack up the traps at around 2:30am.

A total of 105 species were recorded. Plenty of upland species: Grey Mountain Carpet, Beautiful Snout, True Lover's Knot, Scarce Silver Y, Welsh Wave, Narrow-winged Pug, Smoky Wave, Northern Spinach, Glaucous Shears, Aphelia viburnana, Apotomis sauciana and Neofaculta ericetella.

Several species associated with conifers were seen. Lots of Larch Pug, Barred Red and Tawny-barred Angle. Also, Coleophora laricella (2nd county record), Epinotia tedella and Argyresthia laevigatella (new CR).

Other notable moths were Plain Wave, Epinotia tetraquetrana (2nd county record), Carpatolechia proximella (new county record), Monopis weaverella and Swammerdamia caesiella (new CR).

Follow link below for some photos of the site and the moths caught:

Lake Vyrnwy - 24/06/14