252 BR. J. ENT. NAT. HIST., 13: 2001 



(Osb.) (scarce merveille-du-jour); and Laspeyria flexula (D. & S.) (beautiful hook- 

 tip). The best catch of the night was not identified until Sunday. A Heterogenea asella 

 (D. & S.) (triangle) was taken with permission from Bill Deakins' trap by Barry 

 Henwood who did not immediately recognise it but on examination on Sunday he 

 identified it as this species. He brought it round to me and I confirmed the 

 identification. There are only two records from the Plymouth and Plymbridge areas 

 from over 100 years ago. 



Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon, 9 July 1999 



Leader: Roy McCormick. — The evening was dry and cloudy with a temperature that 

 held at around 14°C, and it looked as though the Racecourse event could be good for 

 a change; the site has never been very productive but it has produced some good 

 finds. Bernard Barnett, John Muggleton and I arrived to find Mr and Mrs Brown 

 (Devon Moth Group Members) and a Butterfly Conservation Member, Mrs D 

 Dicker and daughter waiting for us; another DMG Member had gone to the wrong 

 place and missed the event. 



We made our way to the trapping site and set up my equipment of four traps and 

 did a bit of dusking while waiting for darkness to fall; nothing of note was seen 

 before I started up the generator and once the lights were operating moths started to 

 trickle in slowly. We did one round of the traps with nothing of note seen and Mrs 

 Dicker and daughter decided that they had seen some moths and it was time for them 

 to leave. I think they enjoyed the short stay and saw moths they had never seen 

 before. 



On the next round we had elephant hawk and jersey tiger plus a few of the larger 

 moths and felt that it was a shame that Mrs Dicker did not stay that little bit longer. 

 The list crept up as more visits to the traps were made but we had decided that this 

 was not going to be a late night because we had an Exhibition (The Creepy Crawly 

 Show) to go to the following morning. Around 23.30 I set up the 'Robinson' trap and 

 small generator (this was firmly chained to an open barn) and we set about bringing 

 the other equipment in. This trap was started up before we left at around midnight, 

 and was left running until it ran out of fuel; this was collected in the morning prior to 

 the Exhibition. Specimens for this event are collected to be shown live in a cage at the 

 Exhibition and are released after the show; this display creates a great deal of interest 

 with the people who attend the event. 



The more interesting of the species seen were one Calamotropha paludella (Hub.) 

 taken outside the 'Robinson'; two Catoptria falsella (D. & S.); two Cleorodes 

 lichenaria (Hufn.) (brussels lace); one Thumatha senex (Hub.) (round-winged 

 muslin); one Euplagia quadripunctaria (Poda) (jersey tiger); one Callinwrpha 

 domimda (L.) (scarlet tiger); two Lacanobia suasa (D. & S.) (dog's tooth) and four 

 Apamea ophiogramma (Esp.) (double lobed). 



Sloden Inclosure and Ladycross, New Forest, Hampshire, 14 August 1999 



Leader: Paul Waring. — The main aim of this meeting was to see if we could find the 

 dark crimson underwing moth Catocala sponsa (L.) in the tract of mature oak 

 woodland in Sloden Inclosure in the north of the New Forest, near Fritham. Since 

 1995 the Society has held field meetings annually in the New Forest to investigate the 

 status of this species and other rare insects, continuing a long history of visits by the 

 BENHS to this exceptional area. The meeting in 1995 confirmed the presence of both 

 the dark and light crimson underwings C. sponsa and C. promissa (D. & S.) at five 



