St Giles Cemetery, Winchester Moths and night insects 25th July

By kind invite of Dave and Anna, who live adjacent to the cemetery, we ran a moth lamp over sheet at the gabions and three other traps were run from ‘9 til late’. 11 people attended the event. It was a typical warm night but a bit of breeze effected things as did the lack of rain for four weeks now. I listed exactly 50 moth species, mainly species that are common nowadays, but a lovely dewick’s plusia was only my second and I had not seen many male gypsy moth before – both species have only become more common recently. There were numerous other insects – Mirid bugs, leafhoppers, caddis flies, small Diptera, weevils, and ladybirds. Oak bush cricket and marmalade hoverfly joined the party. There were some nice beetles like dorbeetle Geotrupes sp., Pine Longhorn Beetle Arhopalus rusticus (pictured), a burying beetle Nicrophorus interruptus, and a large, brown click beetle Stenagostus rhombeus.