BR. I INI NA'I. HIST., 13 1001 



Great TorringtOD woodlands, Devon, 26 June 1999 



Leader: Roy McCormiek. The weather forecast looked decided]) bad. with rain 

 and thunder promised but it was decided to 'give it a go' with various people, who 

 were interested, being told over the phone that we would be at the prearranged ^>\ 

 at 20.30. I arrived with Peter Franghiadi to find several people had already turned up 

 and the weather was reasonable with slight dri/.zle and hardly any wind; we were 

 hoping for cloud cover because it was the night before a full moon. We were a dozen 

 altogether with a mixture of Devon Moth Group. BENHS. Butterfly Conservation 

 and Devon Wildlife Trust members; we had one Devonshire Association member 

 and one person with a general interest who left before the night got underway, 

 probably put off by the proposed late finish. We discussed where everybody was to 

 go, with Barry Henwood, Harry Wooltorton, Darren Willetts and Bill Deakins 

 deciding to stay in the track where we had assembled; Peter Franghiadi and I had 

 already planned to go to the next block of woodland owned by Clinton Devon 

 Estates; a four-wheel drive was needed to get to this area. Adrian Henderson put a 

 couple of traps in his own block of woodland just up the road. In all. eleven traps 

 were put out in the three areas. 



Peter and I and a couple of DMG members went on to our spot, set up the 

 equipment and put out the wine ropes; by the time we had this finished it was time to 

 go back to the main site to see what had come in. The weather was still holding with 

 the temperature around 15-17 °C; it kept trying to rain but thankfully it did not. The 

 list started to build with one or two good species among the commoner moths. After 

 we had checked out the traps in the main track we returned to our own equipment 

 (Adrian was doing his own check on his traps, reporting back to me later). On the 

 way back my Land Rover had a front wheel puncture in the rutted track leading to 

 our site; a frantic wheel change was carried out. the people with me helping out as 

 best they could; this was around 23.20 and the only lights we had were a torch and a 

 lantern — lucky that the track had a stony base. When we eventually got back to our 

 site and started to look at the traps, the first Moma alpium (scarce merveille-du-jour) 

 had already turned up; this was around 23.45 and it was a fresh female. The list had 

 increased considerably by the time we had finished looking at our lights but no more 

 M. alpium yet so we piled back into the Land Rover and returned to the main track 

 to see how things were progressing. Barry Henwood had taken the rare tortrix 

 Celypha aurofasciana (Haw.) and Phlyctaenia stachydalis (Germ.) had turned up at 

 two of the sites. Bill Deakins had his first M. alpium and several other good species 

 had come in. Harry was having trouble with his generator so was not doing \er\ well: 

 I found out later that his car had broken down so Harry definitely did not have a 

 good night. The time was around 01.15 and we decided to take our leave so we said 

 our good nights and went back to our site to pack up; at around 01.30 we started to 

 pack up and two more male M. alpium were found; the list b\ this time was around 

 100 species but there was nothing on the wine ropes. As we packed up the rain 

 started, gentle at first but increasing and by the time we had finished around 02.00 it 

 was raining lightly; this got worse as we drove home. I think we finished just in time. 

 The final list came to 120 species. 



The more interesting species were Pandemis cinnamomeana (Treit.); Celypha 

 aurofasciana (Haw.); Eudonia delunella (Staint.): Phlyctaenia stachydalis (Germ): 

 Euphyia unangulata (Haw.) (sharp-angled carpet): Chloroclystis debiliata (Hub.) 

 (bilberry pug); Hydrelia sylvata (D. & S.) (waved carpet); Macarja liturata (Clerck) 

 (tawny-barred angle) & (probably) f. nigrofulvata; Cleorodes lichenaria (Hufn.) 

 (brussels lace); Aetheria bicolorata (Hufn.) (broad-barred white): Moma alpium 



