Moth round up

With the warm and bright weather we had over the last few days, I spent a little time netting micros at Ash Valley Golf Club. Always a good site and so it proved again.
A selection of micros were potted on Friday (27th May) and passed on to Graeme Smith for dissection. These turned out to be:
11 Dichrorampha plumbana
Coleophora staitipennella (a good Herts moth with just a few records)
Endothenia oblongana.
Also, 1st Mother shipton of the year. Thanks to Graeme for the dissections.

Yesterday I returned and was surrounded by hundreds of Dichrorampha plumbana along with other micros, which I endeavoured to net and pot. With more time, I managed to identify all that was taken apart from a Caloptilia sp, heading towards Graeme.
Dichrorampha sequana (I found this last year at the same site when it was classified as Herts extinct. Plenty of these around the foodplants, yarrow and tansy.
5 Dichrorampha plumbana
Aspilapteryx tringipennella
2 Dichrorampha simpliciana
Micropterix aruncella
Also noted, 1 st cinnabar of the year.
Last night the heath trap was again set in the local graveyard, but cloud cover dispersed meaning just:
clouded border
2 common swift
Angle shades
In the garden trap, slightly more sheltered but less than 10 yards away from the heath trap:
Endrosis sarcitrella
2 common pug
Scprched carpet
Scoparia basistrigalis
Buff ermine
common swift

All these recent additions take the year totals to 33 micros and 75 macros, a total of 614 moths and for the parish list, 588 species made up of 311 macros and 277 micros. The 600th species is approaching so champagne now moved to the fridge for the celebration.

Aspilapteryx tringipennella

Agapeta hamana

Dichrorampha sequana

Anania hortulata

Eulia ministrana

Micropterix aruncella

male small heath butterfly. 1st of the year

malachite beetle