Speyside Centre Moth Trapping - August 20 2016

Although most of the Speyside Centre burned down in a devastating fire earlier in the year, we decided to go ahead with the planned moth trapping event. The site is surrounded by trees and shrubs and so moths would be present, fire or no fire. However, as I set the traps up the night before, the sky was clear, the moon was full and the stars were shining – poor conditions for attracting moths to traps.

Ten folk gathered in the morning, including David Lambie, the owner of the centre, who is himself keen on butterflies and moths. If you go into the temporary tea-room you will see some of David’s stunning butterfly photos on the wall. Naturally, with our moth trapping event taking place next to a tea-room, we were obliged to stop for coffee and cake mid-way through the event!

Luckily, during the night it turned cloudy and damp so we ended up with a decent haul of moths – 48 species in total. My personal favourites were the freshly emerged autumn species – Sallow, Angle-striped Sallow and Autumnal Rustic, though they were a reminder that summer is coming to an end! Also on a personal note, I added 12 new species to my 2016 moth list, breaking through the 300 barrier to reach 310 species!

Moth list below:

Acleris laterana	Dotted Carpet	Lesser Yellow Underwing
Agriphila tristella	Dotted Clay	Minor Shoulder-knot
Angle-striped Sallow	Ear Moth agg.	Mirificarma mulinella
Anomalous	Epinotia brunnichana	Neglected Rustic
Apotomis betuletana	Epinotia ramella	Northern Spinach
Argyresthia goedartella	Eudonia lacustrata	Pine Carpet
Autumnal Rustic	Eudonia truncicolella	Plain Clay
Barred Chestnut	Flame Carpet	Rhopobota ustomaculana
Barred Red	Grey Pine Carpet	Riband Wave
Burnished Brass	Holly Tortrix	Sallow
Cedestis gysseleniella	Ingrailed Clay	Scoparia ambigualis
Common Marbled Carpet	July Highflier	Small Fan-footed Wave
Common Rustic agg.	Juniper Pug	Square-spot Rustic
Dark Arches	Large Yellow Underwing	Twin-spot Carpet
Dark Marbled Carpet	Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing	Udea lutealis
Dioryctria abietella	Lesser Swallow Prominent	White-line Dart

 

Autumnal Rustic

 

White-line Dart