Blair's Mocha

Blair's Mocha.

Wednesday night was ideal for light trapping, warm, still and overcast and I set two traps in the garden. 10 p.m. and the Heath trap with synergetic light and car battery are in the wheelbarrow and I'm off down the hill to set up at the Wee Wood, 400 metres away in a small line of trees down the track.

Woke at 4 a.m. on Thursday morning and got the traps closed and in. This involving the wheelbarrow down and up the hill as the first light showed. Then back to bed.

Mid morning on Thursday I started working on the traps sorting through the catches. The back actinic was ok but the front Robinson, also running an actinic light, was a bit of a nightmare with rather a lot of intruders, some egg trays and the middle of the trap were deep in a mass of Diptera and combined with fairly high numbers of Large Yellow Underwings this was an uncomfortable experience.

Robinson trap intruded.

 

Large Yellow Underwings have an uncanny knack of getting in  your clothes, it is not an entirely pleasant experience. Anyway, there were a few nice things, first Dark Marbled Carpet for the year, a pristine beast, and plenty of interesting looking caddis.

Dark Marbled Carpet.

However, when it came to the trap running the synergetic from the Wee Wood the intruder situation was a tad more annoying. I had an inkling this would be so when I'd closed the trap as the lamp and vanes were covered in (mostly) Limnephilus marmoratus.

Limnephilus marmoratus on the synergetic.

This caddis tends to flap around in the trap and when you get a lot of them they damage the moths and make them restless. On top of this there were huge numbers of Diptera and Large Yellow Underwing in the trap.

On opening the first moth I saw was a damaged Lempke's Gold Spot which made a rapid escape before I could get a camera on it. 

Invaded.

I persevered for a while but it became obvious that as well as being a very uncomfortable experience this was a pretty futile exercise. I removed the egg cartons to a large cardboard box, shaking off most of the caddis and flies.

Time for lunch.

Into the kitchen where daughters had kindly made me something to eat, sat down and then noticed a moth on the kitchen radiator. I scooted over and took a look at it; panic! Camera and collection pots were outside. Rushed out to get these issuing instructions as I went that no one was to go near that moth. Fortunately it was still there when I got back in a minute later and took some rather shakey photos. 

I subsequently learned that Louise had seen this moth much earlier and had forgotten to inform me about it....

 

Blair's Mocha on the kitchen radiator.

 

Later in the day the county recorder arrived, confirmed the ID and I learned that this as well as being a first for Orkney was perhaps a first for Scotland. Still a bit stunned.