Mothing the New Forest

First night off-site with the LepiLED and a portable Robinson-type moth trap was in North Poulner in the New Forest. We ate fairly late but there were Pipistrelle bats circling the trees in the garden overlooking the valley long before dusk feel.

I lit up with the trap right under an oak tree, I had high hopes. Numbers weren’t huge, but there were a couple of species I had not seen before – Six-striped Rustic (Xestia sexstrigata, one of the many noctuid, or owlet moths) and Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix (Pandemis corylana). The latter is also known as the Hazel Tortrix Moth, the Filbert Tortricid or the Barred Fruit-tree moth and sits within the Tortricidae family.

Full list for the first lit-up night was: Brimstone, Chequered Fruit-tree Tortrix (NFM), Chrysoteuchia culmella (6), Flame Shoulder, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (2), Light Emerald (3),  Maiden’s Blush, Rosie Rustic, Six-striped Rustic (2, NFM).

Just to note, when I got up in the middle of the night and took a breath of fresh air, as it were, there was a fox trotting slowly past the moth trap in the relative dark, I don’t think it even saw me standing there, certainly didn’t seem perturbed.

I didn’t have my usual macro kit and “studio” with me, so just basic record shots of the new moths.