2006 as a whole, produced a good selection of moths. A total of 261 species were recorded during the course of the year, although trapping was on limited dates until August, when my wife Dilys began to develop an extremely keen interest in the subject. As her life-long fear of moths gradually began to subside, she began to understand and appreciate their obvious beauty more.

Interestingly, it was on her very first trapping session at Lound Wood that we trapped a Nottinghamshire first in the form of a Pale Pinion. Later in the year we caught another (again at Lound Wood in October) but this time were using what was to become a regular trapping site on the edge of wood with a more open aspect. This site (and that of nearby Red Hill) provided some overdue records of regular and rare UK migrants during an exciting September.

Right:- Nottinghamshire's first ever Pale Pinion, Lound Wood April 11th

Grey Shoulder-knot had another good year with numbers of adults either found at rest by day or trapped at light, well up on all previous years. Much of this was due to the increased amount of end of year coverage, but since it first appeared in the county in 2003, the Grey Shoulder-knot has gone from strength to strength. Other moths that appeared to do well included Red-green Carpet (40 adults on 24 dates) and Lunar Marbled Brown (max of 13 at Lound Wood on May 5th)

September 9th, 12th and 23rd were particularly memorable nights and the only thing that we wish on reflection now (December) was that the trapping sessions had continued throughout the night. This would certainly have yielded more migrants on each of the three nights, but a few of the moths caught may never occur again for many years. 2006 was a bumper year across the UK for migrants, with weather systems and/or conditions allowing many inland sites to catch previously very rare inland migrants such as Scarce Bordered Straw.

At Eakring, there were record numbers of Hummingbird Hawk-moths during August and September, five Scarce Bordered Straws, 15 Rush Veneers, two Vestal, single Bedstraw Hawk-moth, Pearly Underwing, Small Mottled Willow and Euchromius ocellea. All except Hummingbird Hawk-moth were new species for the area. Another migrant, the Rusty Dot Pearl didn't occur until October and then there were another two records after this. These were the first here since 2000.

Euchromius ocellea

Rusty Dot Pearl

Rush Veneer

Vestal

Bedstraw Hawk-moth

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Pearly Underwing

Dark Sword-grass

Scarce Bordered Straw

Small Mottled Willow

Both at Eakring and across the rest of the UK, the numbers of migrants attracted to light dropped over the next few nights. Silver Y's remained at Red Hill in slightly increased numbers and a second Scarce Bordered Straw was netted on the 10th, but it was'nt until the 12th, that another predicted wave of migrants reached the area.

The graph shows the occurrence of two Vestal at Eakring, against those reported throughout the UK during September

Light-trapping just outside Lound Wood on September 23rd provided another interesting night. With a generally open aspect and with the wood being elevated above the surrounding land, five Rush Veneer, four Silver Y and two Scarce Bordered Straw were seen to approach the trap from the south-west across the open field. Interestingly, this was into the wind, where earlier in the day, Red Admirals had been noted moving through south. Perhaps this is confirmation that these migrant moths were part of the UK influx which took place on this night?

Merveille du Jour

Burnished Brass

Beaded Chestnut

Birds Wing

V-Pug

2006 appeared to be a very poor year for micros and many trapping sessions were virtually devoid of any of the regular micros at all. Some notable records did occur however. Probably one of the best being the two Acleris cristana taken at Lound Wood on October 30th, these being the third and fourth area records. Other potentially scarce micros during 2006 included Acrolepia autumnitella and Zeiraphera isertana (second record)

Pyralidae

The occurrence of Euchromius ocellea has already been mentioned previously in the migrant section, but 2006 also saw another good selection of Pyralids from the area. Other migrants were three Rusty Dot Pearl (first since 2000) and 15 Rush Veneer which were the first ever records of this common migrant.

A notable series of Orthopygia glaucinalis records during September and October were unusual in that the dates this Pyralid was taken, were well past it's normal flight period. This was also the first time the moth had been taken here in several years trapping and it is a known migrant. In the UK, Orthopygia glaucinalis is commonest in the south, but is a species associated with farmland. These records could possibly be genuine migrants, as it should have been taken in previous years. Another potential migrant Pyralid was the single Eudonia angustea, taken at Red Hill on September 24th. This is a primarily coastal moth in the UK and inland records are thought to involve migrants. Like O. glaucinalis, E. angustea also turned up in traps across the southern-half of the UK around the same time.

Acleris cristana

Caloptilia stigmatella

Phyllonorycter geniculella

Cydia splendana

Orthopygia glaucinalis

Leaves remaining on many trees well into November enabled identification work on the many leaf mining species present. A total of 25 new species of leaf miners were recorded during the year, some of which may be new to Nottinghamshire.

Late second broods

With much of the trapping coverage given over to the latter months of the year, among the new species trapped were some unusual late second broods. Similar late broods were also noted at other UK sites. Species such as Small Fan-footed Wave, Buff Footman, Blood-vein, Gold Triangle, Lozotaeniodes formosanus and Carcina quercana, were all noted well into September and even October. Some of the new species recorded were the beautiful Merveille du Jour, Beaded Chestnut, Dark Chestnut, Sprawler, Vine's Rustic and V-Pug.