Our Moths Revealed: An Entomologist’s Night in the Meadow
Paul Black, an entomologist and moth expert came Long Mead as part of a British Entomological Society visit in June and stayed the night to study our moths. Below is the letter that he wrote with his findings afterwards. It was so amazing and so poetic, we thought that we would print it for everyone to read. Wonderfully for NRN/LMF, he has agreed to join our team of entomologists who are surveying monthly through the summer to try to understand invertebrates in floodplain meadows and the extent to which our efforts to restore the botanical diversity of the meadows around us is leading to an increase in invertebrate diversity and over what time period.
Dear Catriona,
Many thanks for allowing me to record moths at Long Mead meadow on Sunday.
I slightly altered the trap positions.
The Robinson-pattern trap was placed by some reeds near the metal gate into the next field. The (bigger) Robinson trap went down near the first Poplar as you head towards the bridge and the ‘hamp on a stand’ went on the hard core just shore of the bridge and the footpath to the right.
By 21:30 I had set up and was waiting for darkness to fall when a Barn Owl slowly and silently eased its way low over the meadow. It came from the direction of entrance and virtually followed the transect line that you had shown me before dropping down somewhere near the large Ash tree which guards your property.
The traps were switched on at 22:00 and there were swarms of insects around the bulbs almost instantly. These were mostly mayflies – no moths.
By 23:00 it was still very quiet and I started to wonder if I had been wrong about not going onto the meadow itself. I decided to walk along the transect line and examine the Knapweed flowers by torchlight. This revealed nothing. I waved the torch around and observed very little activity among the sward either. I think that with the clear skies it was still too early for moth activity. The mild temperature and light winds remained throughout the night.
By midnight things picked up considerably and this continued until at least 03:00 with all three traps doing a brisk trade.
As far as the final list is concerned, 77 species was my best return this year and included 23 species which were new for me for 2025. It was my first session at a “wet” habitat. It seems odd to call it that when everywhere is so dry.
The two migrant species were nice to see and Lilac Beauty and Olive were not things that I encounter every year. Dotted fan-foot only reached Oxfordshire about 10 years ago (downstream at Goring). It is spreading from east and south-east England and this could even be its most north-westerly record. David Brown (Warwickshire moth-recorder) was still awaiting its arrival in the county when I spoke to him about 5 years ago.
Lilac Beauty. Photo credit: https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/apeira-syringaria/ © Ab H. Baas
Double Dart. Photo credit: https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/graphiphora-augur/adult-2/ © Ian Kimber
The best find for me was Double Dart. I used to find it regularly at Chieveley (Berkshire) in the 1970s but since 2010 I have only two other records. One was caught by me at Brandon Marsh, near Coventry and the other one was shown to me at a moth night in Bladon (Oxfordshire) by a lady who had caught it in a garden in Ducklington the previous night. As that is only a short distance from Swinford, as the moth flies, perhaps this is its remaining Thames Valley Strangehold?
It became light at about 04:00 and I left the site at about 05:30. The session ended as it had begun – with a bird. This time it was the unmistakable call of a cuckoo.
How many moths came from the meadow and how many came from elsewhere?
Most of the macro-moth species in the British Isles belong to two super-families. These are the Geometridae (Geometers) and the Noctuidae (Noctuids). The remaining moths belong to several smaller families and can often be more colourful and spectacular than the Geometers and Noctuids.
Geometers usually rest with their wings spread open, They have light, slender bodies and flap about relatively slowly.
Noctuids tend to rest with their wings held back tent-like over their stout bodies and fly around much more powerfully.
My list is in taxonomic order with the Geometers starting at “Lesser Cream Wave” and ending at “Common Emerald”.
The Noctuids start at “Spectacle” and end at “Setaceous Hebrew Character”.
You will notice that in the main (there are exceptions to everything in moths!) the Geometers’ larvae are dependent on trees and the Noctuids larvae prefer low-growing plants. Hence, when moth-trapping in woodland our geometer lists lengthen whereas more open situations favour noctuids.
By a very rough thumb-nail estimate I have annotated with a pink mark the species which may have emanated from the meadow. This accounts for 34/77 species (nearly half) or 237/379 moths (nearly two-thirds).
It might be interesting to run a trap well out into the meadow next time to see how it fares.