Field Trip - Ashwell Quarry - 25/09/17 On Monday night I returned back to Ashwell Quarry as it was a warmish day but not the expected 19 degrees, instead we had 16 degrees and rain...not ideal for a night of mothing. A minimum of 10 degrees was the forecast but luckily, the thick cloud cover held the temperature up at 14 degrees even right upto packing up time at 11pm.

It was exactly 3 weeks since I last trapped here where I managed lots and lots of migrants but I wasn't hopeful for a migrant bumper night like last time as the wind direction was from the East and not the 'ideal' South-West, and it wasn't very much and got damp really quickly.

Luckily I didn't get wet!

Best moths were singles of Deep-brown Dart and Mallow and I did get a smidge of migration with a rather tatty Scarce Bordered Straw and a Plutella xylostella.

45 species was a pleasing amount for a relatively early session starting from 7pm until 11pm, no doubt that if my tiredness hadn't taken hold of me and I stayed a few hours later, I might have added a few more species.

Catch Report - 25/09/17 - Ashwell Quarry - North Hertfordshire - 4 traps in total - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap and 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Angle Shades 2 Barred Sallow 8 Beaded Chestnut 14 Beautiful Hook-tip 1 Black Rustic 3 Brimstone Moth 5 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 4 Brown-spot Pinion 8 Burnished Brass 1 Common Marbled Carpet 3 Common Wainscot 25 Copper Underwing 1 Deep-brown Dart 1 Dusky Thorn 2 Frosted Orange 1 Large Yellow Underwing 10 Latticed Heath 1 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing 8 Light Emerald 2 Lunar Underwing 10 Mallow 1 Pale Mottled Willow 2 Scarce Bordered Straw 1 Setaceous Hebrew Character 200+ Shuttle-shaped Dart 1 Snout 5 Square-spot Rustic 10 Turnip Moth 1 Willow Beauty 5 Yellow-tail 1

Micro Moths

Acleris rhombana 2 Acleris sparsana 2 Acleris variegana 2 Blastobasis lacticolella 2 Clepsis consimiliana 2 Cochylis molliculana 1 Coleophora trifoli 1 Emmelina monodactlya 1 Emmetia marginea 1 Endrosis sarcitrella 2 Eudonia pallida 8 Hypsopygia costalis 1 Monopis crocapitella 1 Plutella xylostella 1