Field Trip - Ashwell Quarry - 22/05/17 On Monday night and after a really warm day peaking at around 25 degrees, it was off to Ashwell Quarry with traps in tow.

Trevor and myself set about setting up all of the lights spread across the reserve covering nearly all of it. We did a little bit of 'dusking' before it was time to switch the lights on and turned up a few micros, notably Cauchas fibulella (Is this moth on every patch of Germander Speedwell in the County of does it just favour chalky areas where the plant seems to flourish?).

The night started well and we had a bit of cloud cover to boot, but that did disappear eventually to leave a large clear sky and a slight drop in temperature to 13 degrees by 2am. The thing that did hamper us slightly was the fact that the wind got up a bit as the night went on.

It was good to get Netted Pug which is still a scarce moth in the County and cracking to look at, also Trevor saw his first ever Pseudargyrotoza conwagana, a pretty little tortrix moth.

Also a Geometer had us really stumped. To Trevor's trap we potted up a dark grey Emerald looking species, which after much searching of books and the web I finally settled on the rare 'nigra' form of Blood-vein, minus the vein marking and with a hint of 'blood' along the fringe of the forewings

There a few outstanding specimens to be gen det, a Cochylis species and a Scrobipalpa species.

Generally numbers were a little down on what we had hoped and we didn't quite get to the target of 100 species but nevertheless some good fresh specimens were observed and it was a pleasure to just get out there and give it a go!

Catch Report - 22/05/17 - Ashwell Quarry - North-west Herts - 8 traps in total - 3x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap 1x 5w LED Trap Uva/uvb Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap

92 species

Macro Moths

Angle Shades Blood-vein Brimstone Moth Brown Rustic Common Pug Clouded Silver Common Carpet Common Marbled Carpet Common Swift Common Wainscot Figure of Eighty Flame Shoulder Garden Carpet Green Carpet Grey-pine Carpet Large Nutmeg Large Yellow Underwing Latticed Heath Least Black Arches Light Brocade Light Emerald Lime-speck Pug Marbled Minor Mottled Pug Netted Pug Oak Hook-tip Orange Footman Pale Tussock Poplar Grey Purple Bar Red-green Carpet Red Twin-spot Carpet Rustic Shoulder-knot Sandy Carpet Scorched Carpet Setaceous Hebrew Character Silver-ground Carpet Silver-Y Small Fan-foot Small Square-spot Small Waved Umber Snout Spectacle Treble Lines V-Pug Waved Umber White Ermine White-spotted Pug Willow Beauty Yellow-barred Brindle

Micro Moths

Aethes smeathmanniana Agapeta hamana Agonopterix alstromeriana Agonopterix arenella Aphomia sociella Argyresthia trifasciata Aspilapteryx tringipennella Blastobasis lacticolella Cauchas fibulella (Swept from Germander Speedwell) Celypha lacunana Cochylimorpha straminea Cochylis atricapitana Coleophora sp Crambus lathoniellus Depressaria radiella Dichrorampha alpinana Elachista argentella Endrosis sarcitrella Epiblema cirsiana/sticticana Epiphyas postvittana Esperia sulphurella Evergestis forficalis Glyphipterix simpliciella Hedya pruniana Homoeosoma sinuella Monopis crocicapitella Monopis laevigella Monopis weaverella Nemapogon cloacella Nematopogon swammerdamella Nematopogon schwarziellus Notocelia cynosbatella Notocelia trimaculana Plutella xylostella Pseudargyrotoza conwagana Scrobipalpa costella Scrobipalpa sp - to be gen det Scoparia ambigualis Scoparia pyralella Syndemis musculana Tinea semifulvella