Leaving the trap set up and trusting that any passerby in the dark would not bother the trap I rushed back home (2 mins) to grab the cable. Rummaging around in the garage I couldn't find the damn thing so I did what anybody would do in the circumstances - I grabbed the generator re-borrowed recently for a bioblitz and the mains MV trap top end and bolted back to the woods.
Naturally the first thing I found on my return was the missing cable that I had put inside the moth trap. It only helps to be clever when you can do it at both ends! Anyway, the long and short of it is that I ended up running an actinic in the woods for 1.5 hours and an MV with no bottom end on the coast, where the generator noise would be less likely to bother anybody. If I'd done this through the year I'd be "finished" by now! I'll do it again after a suitable break now that I know it's possible to use the generator without the police showing up. There should still be a few moth species left in the tanks.
I did hope I would get an Aphodius rufipes, which is a frequent light trap visitor in the garden, but I have no complaints. No boost to my horrible beetle tally though. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was wandering along the path looking at something in a pot and getting tripped up by a hedgehog. Sorry, buddy!
I should also credit here one of my neighbours, Blair, who caught the Tipula while we were chatting next to the MV and successfully transferred it from hand to pot. It won't be the last T.paludosa, but it was the first!
(insert: just spent half of lunchtime watching a cracking white wag feeding on the beach. no chance I can get a half point?)
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| Hedgehog football |
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| Copper underwing |
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| Riband Wave |
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| Parsnip Moth |
Additions:
| 909 | Idaea aversata | Riband Wave |
| 910 | Amphipyra pyramidea | Copper underwing |
| 911 | Tipula paludosa | A cranefly |
| 912 | Luperina testacea | Flounced Rustic |
| 913 | Depressaria radiella | Parsnip Moth |
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