Newsletter no. 4 December 2000Page 3Saturday 14th April 2001 — Rye Meads N. R.Meet: Gate to reserve at TL 395106 (O.S. Landranger map sheet 166, on north side of the yellow road where it is reached by a footpath). Recommended approach from the east (B.181 Stansted Abbots exit on the A.414). If approaching from the west (Hoddesdon) you will need 30 pence each way for the coin-operated toll barrier!Assemble: from 7 pm to 7.30 pm (sunset 8 pm) Late-comers should be able to find us easily on the reserve. Trap site: Damp woodland. Wear wellies.
Saturday 28th April — Ashridge Estate – joint meeting with BENHSDetails as for 31st March. Assemble 2 pm for daytime work and then between 7 and 7.30 pm for light trapping. We will be trapping in the car park area so latecomers can find us here.
Saturday 12th May — Scales Park– joint meeting with BENHSMeet: At the gated entrance to the wood, at the far end of the track that runs north from the minor road between Anstey and Meesden, at grid reference TL 418334. The site is on the extreme top, left-hand corner of OS Landranger sheet 167, about 8 miles north-west of Bishops Stortford. To get there from the west, pick up the A.10 road and then take the B.1038, which runs east from Buntingford (on the A.10) towards Newport and the M.11 motorway in Essex, and turn left at Brent Pelham onto the lane towards Meesden.Assemble from 7.30 to 8 pm. (Sunset is at 8.45). Trap site: Mixed woodland with damp grassland areas and good, wide rides. Leader — Jim Reid.
Saturday 26th May — Ashridge EstateDetails as for 31st March except assemble between 7.30 and 8 pm (sunset at 9 pm).Keep diaries clear on alternate Saturdays from now on!!! Some trips may also be arranged for Fridays. If you can arrange access to a good site near you please ring me and we can arrange a formal visit!
County Moth Night 2001This is the night where everyone tries to run a light trap from dusk until dawn and count the numbers of each species of moth in the morning. This helps us get some idea of frequency of different species across the county. Details in the next newsletter, but please note that County Moth Night 2001 will be held on the night of Friday 22nd /Saturday 23rd June.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .National Moth Night 2001For those who already have their next year’s diaries handy, National Moth Night 2001 will be held on the night of 11th/12th August. It is partly fixed at this time in order to mobilise people into looking for the now very rare White-spotted Pinion (Cosmia diffinis), an elm feeder which has declined drastically since the 1970s, presumably as a consequence of Dutch Elm Disease. Start looking for an area with elm trees / scrub now and make a note to run lights there on the night!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Moth watching in the winterSo — the moth season ends on 31st December. Then what? Well — it starts again. I am unlikely to be running lights in the local woods during January and February (but I will start again on mild nights in March). However, there is plenty to do. Many moths hibernate as adults and we have very little information on the places they choose for their winter sleep. I would like to find out. There is the added attraction that cold, sleepy moths are more easily photographed by those of a pictorial bent. The following are very likely to be found.Buttoned Snout Herald Chestnut Red-green Carpet Dark Chestnut Satellite Grey Shoulder-knot Tawny Pinion Others may also be discovered, and should be reported, but these are our target species. Suitable hibernation places (hibernacula) might include hollow trees, garden sheds, church towers, Anderson shelters (do any exist in Herts) and icehouses amongst others (although please do not enter any site where there are known to hibernating bats as the minute rise in air temperature as a result of a human presence is sometimes enough to cause bats to die).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Local moth highlights - 2000by Colin M. EverettCatches at Garston suggest a fairly ordinary year for moths, although a few new tetrad records have included Blue-bordered Carpet (15th June) and Spruce Carpet (13th September) plus the micros Ypsolopha sequella (5th August) and the Wax Moth – Galleria mellonella (9th September). The venerable “Heath” trap here was replaced with a “Skinner” in early September and this continues to be operated as other commitments permit. Frequent use of the “Heath” actinic traps in the Bricket Wood area produced the Nationally Notable Waved Black at three separate locations, suggesting that it is now established here. The formerly rather local Black Arches was found to be abundant, with records from two tetrads and double-figure counts on Bricket Wood Common. Also recorded in the area were Large Emerald (regular in two tetrads), Blotched Emerald, Maiden’s Blush, Small Scallop, Chocolate-tip (almost certainly using Aspen here), Lobster Moth and Nut-tree Tussock (including one of the form melanotica). I am also surveying the Aldenham area, where Wall Hall produced Clay Triple-lines during County Moth Night, Spruce Carpet, Scorched Carpet, Six-striped Rustic, Small Clouded Brindle and Nut-tree Tussock. Occasional checking of small floodlights in the village churchyard yielded Barred Hook-tip, another Scorched Carpet, several Scarce Footman and Scarce Silver-lines. Berrygrove Wood in the same tetrad provided Blotched Emerald, Bordered White and Pine Hawk-moth in June and the pyralid Catoptria falsella in August. Amongst the immigrants, the Rush veneer (a pyralid) had a particularly good year. Silver Y was also frequent, but had been more so in the cereal fields near Cambridge in early June. Of more interest was another pyralid — Sitochroa palealis — boxed while resting on a thistle near Radlett on 20th July. The most interesting record away from light was of Orange Underwing on garden birches in Radlett on 23rd March. Repeat records included the formerly scarce Least Carpet, found for the second year running at Aldenham and for the third at Garston. During the first half of the year emergence dates were often in advance of normal, one instance being a Small Blood-vein at Watford Junction Station on 16th June, about three or four weeks early. Other notes on flight periods indicate strong numbers of second brood Red-green carpet and Straw Dot in late August and early September.
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