Dumbarnie Links 21/08/2014

Open skies and a starry night with not much to show in terms of moths. We ran the heath trap from about 21:30 until about 23:00, while also doing some walking around and some sugaring on a number of posts around the reserve. 6 Hedge Rustics came to light - a species which has been recorded here once before; also in August.

There was a second species which featured heavily - a Square-spot Rustic 'type', which I need to check now I'm back from a weekend away. Three of these came to sugar while another two came to the light. Once on the sugar mix they were loth to move and one sample taken from there was very easily potted. (There's a S-S Rustic here which looks almost identical, and flight time and habitat are both good)

There was also a Common Rustic which came to the light. No micros were seen of any kind, and no Geometrids, although we did pack up at 11, so you never know what might have come. There wasn't visible much sign in the head-torches that we were missing anything though.

Aside from lepidoptera the light brought in a cranefy which had been previously recorded on te reserve, while the sugar brought in earwigs, harvestmen, a tiny ground beetle, a couple of flies and a lacewing - the only species which was an addition to the reserve list.