'Ton up' of moth species at Llandinam Gravels event

On the day of the event the general weather conditions looked very good so we were very hopeful for a big species list and perhaps a few good records amongst them.

We got on site early to give ourselves plenty of time to set our traps in the best positions. The weather was very mild, but, there was a rather gusty breeze which got up from time to time, so, the placement of our eight traps was quite important. The first species of the evening was in fact a Small White butterfly which Douglas noticed roosting as he was placing the Heath trap in the upper woods. Just after 9:00pm the lights were switched on and the first moth species, a Small Rivulet was soon netted by Douglas; this was swiftly followed by a Ruby Tiger, Dingy Footman and a Snout at the white sheet. It was certainly going to be busy, so we wasted no time in doing the first ‘round’ of checking the traps. More good species were potted throughout the evening - Double Kidney, Twin-spot Carpet, Argyresthia retinella, Argyresthia albistria, Ypsolopha dentella, Cataclysta lemnata, Magpie and Clouded Magpie. Interestingly, one Robinson trap, which was placed in amongst the black poplars and alders, produced a good number of Blue-bordered Carpets, a species which is normally seen in very low single numbers.

Barred Hook-tip

The best species of the evening were Psoricoptera gibbosella 2^nd county record, Achroia grisella 3^rd county record, Caloptilia robustella 7^th county record, Barred Hook-tip 10^th county record. Other noticeable species were Barred Chestnut, Dingy Shears and Bordered Beauty. 

For a full list of all species recorded during the event please click here.
Also, to see all the event photos please click here (All the individual images are captioned though it may be necessary to press the 'i' symbol in the top right of each photo to display them).

Two migrant species were recorded: A Silver Y and a Diamond-back Moth Plutella xylostella.
 

Barred Chestnut

After midnight we had several periods of very light drizzle, but, this didn’t perturb the moths at all and the white sheet was covered; it was certainly some time since we had seen it that busy. At 1:30am we decided to start packing up and as is often the case at packing up, the traps yielded new moths for the species list – these included the Canary-shouldered Thorn, Yellow-tail, Dotted Clay, Light Emerald, Scalloped Oak, Fan-foot, Bordered Beauty, Barred Chestnut and the only hawk moth species of the evening -the Poplar Hawk-moth. We left the site just after 2:30am very satisfied by such an excellent night’s trapping.

It was a great evening and despite the drizzle and breeze the temperature was mild and stayed above 18c. all evening, so it was unfortunate that just the two of us were there to enjoy it. Hopefully our next event at Pont Llogel will be better attended.

Peter.