[0756] Parachronistis albiceps

Description:

13th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, Hertfordshire13th July 2013: Broxbourne Wood, HertfordshireI am not sure if it was the phenomenally hot day on Saturday, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius, or the fact that this trip was to one of the county hot-spots for all things ecological, but we did have a staggering 27 people turn up for the Herts Moth Group trip to Broxbourne Wood National Nature Reserve on 13th July 2013. The West Car Park was completely filled; at one point a police car nosed in, looked, probably thought we were a bunch of weirdos and immediately drove off having turned on his blue lights! In addition to myself, five other people had brought traps and so, as darkness approached, we made use of the fact that the wood has a long and straight ride up the middle; traps were loaded into my Landrover and dropped off at intervals along the ride where they were set up by their owners. In all we ended up with 10 lights here, stretched over a linear distance of 700 metres but, of course, dipping into the sides and various clearings. I confess that I was rather lazy and only one of these (the furthest from the car park) was mine, but as it turned out we really did not need the other five I had in the vehicle. Once these lights were fired up, I also set up a sheet on the side of the Landrover in the West Car Park. People were then free to wander along the trap line and/or stay at the sheet and see what came in.Almost immediately, the moths started coming and they were still coming as the last four of us packed up the last trap at just after 3 am (most people having left in stages between midnight and about 2 am). I am pretty sure that if we had stayed another hour until daybreak we could easily have added a dozen or more further species to the list, but as it is we had to make do with a total of 208 moth species! Very recently, I was moaning that hundred nights were a thing of the past (and of course, when moth-ers talk of hundred nights they mean 100 macros). Well our macro total on Saturday night was 116 species. The astute will realise that this means we had 92 species of micro, but to my knowledge there are at least 3 further species awaiting dissection and it is possible that when this list appears that someone will e-mail me with others that I have overlooked. There are some rather good moths for Hertfordshire in the list use the Herts Moth Book (or if you are under 50, the web site) to look them up. In number order, I might perhaps suggest you look up, amongst others, 397: Glyphipterix thrasonella (rare in the county); 1088: Pseudosciaphila branderiana (very local); 1449: Elegia similella (nationally scarce); 1494: Capperia britanniodactyla (last recorded in the county at this site); 1771a: Thera cupressata Cypress Carpet (recent colonist first county record was in 2006); 1943: Hypomecis roboraria Great Oak Beauty (extremely local we had several in the traps and at the sheet); 2039: Atolmis rubricollis Red-necked Footman (almost certainly part of the recent immigration we had 6). Two species, in the form of 0926: Phalonidia manniana and 1375: Ostrinia nubilalis have recently been split into two species each we have retained specimens but not yet looked at these critically. It was good to have both Aethes cnicana and Aethes rubigana so they could be compared and there were other species pairs too, which made the evening informative as well as fun (e.g., Clouded Brindle and Clouded Bordered-brindle). Happily, the numbers of individuals of each species appear to have resumed a near normal setting, although there were singles of just a few species. There were several Satin Beauties, mostly in my trap at the far end of the line and at the end of the session around 2.30 am. Here too, I am told by others, Violet Ground Beetles (Carabus violaceus) were making off with large numbers of Leopard Moths that had not made it all the way to the safety of the trap! Good numbers of Great Oak Beauty emphasise the nature of the woodland habitat at Broxbourne.Those marked with an asterisk (*) have been named by genitalia dissection. Thanks to all the trap operators who gave me lists of moths from their traps throughout the course of the evening. Please tell me if I missed anything.C.W.PlantBelow I have listed the species that were present in my traps.As the group was spread out, my traps got different species to what the others got, the best species by far were 2 scarce Map-winged Swifts that came to the Actinic.Also the rare micros wee very pleasing to see in my traps.12/07/13 Broxbourne Woods - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap run from 9.45pm until 3.00amGhost MothMap-winged SwiftTischeria ekebladellaLeopard MothCaloptilia alchimiellaArgyresthia goedartellaScythropia crataegellaYponomeuta evonymellaParaswammerdamia nebulella [NEW!] Cedestis gysseleniella [NEW!]Prays fraxinellaPlutella xylostella Ypsolopha ustellaColeophora flavipennellaBatia unitellaCarcina quercanaPseudatemelia flavifrontella [NEW!]Parachronistis albiceps [NEW!]Teleiodes vulgellaTeleiodes luculellaBlastodacna hellerellaPhalonidia mannianaAgapeta hamanaAethes cnicanaCochylis atricapitanaPandemis cerasana Pandemis heparana Archips podana Archips xylosteana Lozotaeniodes formosanus Epagoge grotiana Ditula angustioranaPseudargyrotoza conwaganaCnephasia asseclana*Aleimma loeflingianaTortrix viridanaSpatalistis bifasciana [NEW!]Celypha lacunanaHedya prunianaHedya nubiferanaHedya salicellaApotomis turbidanaAncylis achatana Zeiraphera isertanaEpiblema uddmannianaEucosma canaEucosma obumbratanaSpilonota ocellanaRhyacionia pinivoranaChrysoteuchia culmellaCrambus lathoniellusCatoptria pinellaDipleurina lacustrataEurrhypara hortulataPerinephela lancealisUdea prunalisUdea olivalis Endotricha flammealis Phycita roborellaEphestia parasitellaCapperia britanniodactyla [NEW!]Pterophorus pentadactylaAdaina microdactylaDrinkerPebble Hook-tipPeach BlossomBuff ArchesFigure of EightyBlotched EmeraldCommon EmeraldClay Triple-linesBlood-veinLeast CarpetSmall Fan-footed WaveTreble Brown SpotRiband WaveSilver-ground CarpetCommon CarpetBarred StrawCommon Marbled CarpetBarred YellowBlue-bordered CarpetGrey Pine Carpet July HighflyerSmall RivuletFoxglove PugWormwood PugCurrant PugGrey PugGreen PugDouble-striped PugSmall White WaveSmall Yellow WaveClouded BorderTawny-barred AngleBrown Silver-lineBordered BeautyLilac BeautySwallow-tailed MothPeppered MothWillow BeautyMottled BeautySatin Beauty [NEW!]Great Oak BeautyPale Oak BeautyEngrailedBrindled White-spotBordered WhiteCommon White WaveCommon WaveClouded SilverLight EmeraldBarred RedPoplar Hawk-mothElephant Hawk-mothBuff-tipLobster MothIron ProminentPebble ProminentMaple ProminentPale ProminentYellow-tailRosy FootmanRed-necked FootmanScarce FootmanBuff FootmanCommon FootmanBuff ErmineShort-cloaked MothHeart and ClubFlameFlame ShoulderLarge Yellow UnderwingIngrailed ClayDouble Square-spotSmoky WainscotMinor Shoulder-knotPoplar GreyMillerGrey DaggerBird's WingSmall Angle ShadesDark ArchesLight ArchesClouded-bordered BrindleClouded BrindleDusky BrocadeRufous Minor*Tawny Marbled MinorSmall Dotted BuffUncertainMarbled White SpotScarce Silver-linesOak NycteolineBurnished BrassBeautiful Golden YSpectacleBeautiful Hook-tipStraw DotSnoutFan-footSmall Fan-foot