Although it was a seemingly windy night, there were 130 moths in one of the heath traps, which I had set near a reed bed. I was quite surprised at this catch, as this location has proven to catch very few moths in the past. However, it certainly did well last night, as in one of the egg boxes was this stunning Cinnabar moth. I have never seen one on the island before, and I think that there have only been four records since 1999, and before that the last one was in 1966. I also didn't think that this species was attracted to light, although I'm aware that they fly at night.
Other highlights from the trap (excluding the below) were three Southern Wainscots, a Shears, Poplar Hawkmoth and Agapeta hamana
This Pempelia palumbella was also in the trap. Before I discovered three on separate occasions on the mountain last year, there had only been one previous record on the island. I haven't seen any on the mountain so far this year, although I haven't had many thorough searches on still sunny days
Lastly, I also caught a rather more small and brown micro in the form of this Agonopterix heracliana, a pretty common species on the island
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