On Thursday night I joined Graham Bailey and Don Down and a few others for our contribution to national moth night(s)

It had been a whole year nearly since I last came down this way, and it was nice to be back.

The trapping conditions looked pretty good, we did not have the cloud cover that I was blessed with on the previous night in Bedfordshire, but the temperatures were very warm and for the rest of the evening it stayed warm.

We set up 7 traps in high anticipation of a bucket load of moths. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. The moths (particularly the macro's) were very slow turning up to the lamps.

And even after a full two hours, apart from nearly 40 species of micro moths we had only noted around 15 macro species!

What on earth was going wrong!

Luckily all was not lost as we did manage the target species, all 4 of them... the elusive Olive Crescent which is only know from a few sites nationwide, this being one of them and naturally i'd rather protect the sites identity from possible collector's!

It was also nice to see a few Festoons which were really freshly hatched.

Along with the Olive Crescent, there were plenty of Lead-coloured Pugs and Opsibotys fuscalis, all three species being new for me

Catch Report - 03/07/14 - Essex - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

Numbers below are approximate

50 Macros and 57 Micros ( 107 species)

Macro Moths

4x Black Arches

3x Brimstone Moth

2x Buff Arches

2x Buff Ermine

10x Buff Footman

2x Buff-tip

5x Clouded Border

10x Clouded Silver

2x Common Carpet

2x Common Emerald

3x Common Footman

1x Common Marbled Carpet

2x Common White Wave

3x Double Square-spot

2x Dun-bar

3x Engrailed

1x Festoon

1x Flame

2x Flame Carpet

2x Flame Shoulder

1x Green Pug

2x Green Silver-lines

2x July Highflyer

1x Large Emerald

3x Lead-coloured Pug [NEW!]

2x Marbled Minor

3x Marbled White Spot

5x Mottled Beauty

3x Olive Crescent [NEW!]

5x Orange Moth

2x Peach Blossom

1x Peacock Moth

2x Peppered Moth

5x Riband Wave

5x Rosy Footman

2x Scarce Footman

1x Scorched Carpet

2x Scorched Wing

10x Single-dotted Wave

2x Slender Brindle

3x Small Fan-foot

20+ Small Fan-footed Wave

1x Small White Wave

1x Small Yellow Wave

2x Snout

3x Swallow-tailed Moth

1x Tawny-barred Angle

2x Treble Brown Spot

5x Uncertain

1x Yellow Shell

Micro Moths

1x Blastobasis lacticolella

1x Orthopygia glaucinalis

2x Endotricha flammealis

1x Batia unitella

1x Batia lunaris

1x Incurvaria oehlmanniella

1x Caloptilia robustella

2x Parachronistis albiceps

5x Celypha lacunana

2x Eudonia mercurella

2x Tortrix viridana

1x Ditula angustiorana

2x Epagoge grotiana

10x Carcina quercana

15+ Aleimma loeflingiana

5x Gypsonoma dealbana

1x Stigmella aurella

10x Zeiraphera isertana

1x Coleophora sp

5x Chrysoteuchia culmella

2x Hedya pruniana

1x Ypsolopha ustella

1x Ypsolopha dentella

1x Aphomia sociella

2x Celypha striana

2x Archips crataegana

5x Conobathra repandana

2x Cydia splendana

5x Epinotia brunnichana

2x Scoparia ambigualis

1x Catoptria pinella

2x Batrachedra praenangusta

3x Teleoides luculella

2x Epiblema uddmanniana

2x Cnephasia sp

1x Hofmannophila pseudospretella

5x Argyresthia brockeella

2x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

1x Emmetia marginea

2x Acleris kochiella

1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

2x Archips xylosteana

2x Udea prunalis

2x Pandemis cerasana

1x Pandemis heparana

2x Eurrhypara hortulata

2x Yponomeuta evonymella

2x Archips podana

1x Crambus pascuella

2x Spilonota ocellana

1x Epinotia biluna

1x Apotomis betuletana

3x Apotomis turbidana

1x Caloptilia populetorum

1x Epinotia nanana

4x Opsibotys fuscalis [NEW!]

2x Spatalistis bifasciana