On Thursday night I joined Graham Bailey and Don Down and a few others for our contribution to national moth night(s) It had been a whole year nearly since I last came down this way, and it was nice to be back. The trapping conditions looked pretty good, we did not have the cloud cover that I was blessed with on the previous night in Bedfordshire, but the temperatures were very warm and for the rest of the evening it stayed warm. We set up 7 traps in high anticipation of a bucket load of moths. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. The moths (particularly the macro's) were very slow turning up to the lamps. And even after a full two hours, apart from nearly 40 species of micro moths we had only noted around 15 macro species! What on earth was going wrong! Luckily all was not lost as we did manage the target species, all 4 of them... the elusive Olive Crescent which is only know from a few sites nationwide, this being one of them and naturally i'd rather protect the sites identity from possible collector's! It was also nice to see a few Festoons which were really freshly hatched. Along with the Olive Crescent, there were plenty of Lead-coloured Pugs and Opsibotys fuscalis, all three species being new for me Catch Report - 03/07/14 - Essex - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap. Numbers below are approximate 50 Macros and 57 Micros ( 107 species) Macro Moths 4x Black Arches 3x Brimstone Moth 2x Buff Arches 2x Buff Ermine 10x Buff Footman 2x Buff-tip 5x Clouded Border 10x Clouded Silver 2x Common Carpet 2x Common Emerald 3x Common Footman 1x Common Marbled Carpet 2x Common White Wave 3x Double Square-spot 2x Dun-bar 3x Engrailed 1x Festoon 1x Flame 2x Flame Carpet 2x Flame Shoulder 1x Green Pug 2x Green Silver-lines 2x July Highflyer 1x Large Emerald 3x Lead-coloured Pug [NEW!] 2x Marbled Minor 3x Marbled White Spot 5x Mottled Beauty 3x Olive Crescent [NEW!] 5x Orange Moth 2x Peach Blossom 1x Peacock Moth 2x Peppered Moth 5x Riband Wave 5x Rosy Footman 2x Scarce Footman 1x Scorched Carpet 2x Scorched Wing 10x Single-dotted Wave 2x Slender Brindle 3x Small Fan-foot 20+ Small Fan-footed Wave 1x Small White Wave 1x Small Yellow Wave 2x Snout 3x Swallow-tailed Moth 1x Tawny-barred Angle 2x Treble Brown Spot 5x Uncertain 1x Yellow Shell Micro Moths 1x Blastobasis lacticolella 1x Orthopygia glaucinalis 2x Endotricha flammealis 1x Batia unitella 1x Batia lunaris 1x Incurvaria oehlmanniella 1x Caloptilia robustella 2x Parachronistis albiceps 5x Celypha lacunana 2x Eudonia mercurella 2x Tortrix viridana 1x Ditula angustiorana 2x Epagoge grotiana 10x Carcina quercana 15+ Aleimma loeflingiana 5x Gypsonoma dealbana 1x Stigmella aurella 10x Zeiraphera isertana 1x Coleophora sp 5x Chrysoteuchia culmella 2x Hedya pruniana 1x Ypsolopha ustella 1x Ypsolopha dentella 1x Aphomia sociella 2x Celypha striana 2x Archips crataegana 5x Conobathra repandana 2x Cydia splendana 5x Epinotia brunnichana 2x Scoparia ambigualis 1x Catoptria pinella 2x Batrachedra praenangusta 3x Teleoides luculella 2x Epiblema uddmanniana 2x Cnephasia sp 1x Hofmannophila pseudospretella 5x Argyresthia brockeella 2x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 1x Emmetia marginea 2x Acleris kochiella 1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 2x Archips xylosteana 2x Udea prunalis 2x Pandemis cerasana 1x Pandemis heparana 2x Eurrhypara hortulata 2x Yponomeuta evonymella 2x Archips podana 1x Crambus pascuella 2x Spilonota ocellana 1x Epinotia biluna 1x Apotomis betuletana 3x Apotomis turbidana 1x Caloptilia populetorum 1x Epinotia nanana 4x Opsibotys fuscalis [NEW!] 2x Spatalistis bifasciana 1x Epinotia demarniana