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Study of Common Fan-foot (Pechipogo strigilata) in Wyre Forest
© Rosemary Winnall
Adults
All moth trapping used a Honda EU 10i generator and, normally, 5 ALS style wooden Skinner traps with 125 watt Mercury Vapour (MV) bulbs. Traps were located 50 metres apart to maximize catches for each night. All moths going into traps, landing on traps or discovered on surrounding vegetation were recorded, along with the time of their arrival.
Trapping locations early in the flight period were chosen where records were known from recent years. As more was learnt about habitat preferences of the moth, then sites further away were surveyed. On these later trapping dates some traps were intentionally sited in what would be called ‘prime habitat’ and others in what would be considered ‘unsuitable habitat’ – to test ideal habitat theories.
Personal comments by other people suggested that MV trapping might not be the best method for recording adults. Suggested alternatives included actinic traps, sugaring, and daytime vegetation hunts, so all these methods were tried as well.
MV trapping was carried out between 17th May 2002 and 19th July 2002 in 14 sessions. The first adults were trapped on the 1st June and a maximum of 17 were caught on 21st June when 10 traps were available. 53 adult moths were trapped overall.
Timing of adults arriving in the traps indicate that the species often flies late in the night. Only 14 of 53 moths recorded were seen before 01:00, so for this species all-night trapping is essential to get a full picture of the moth’s occurrence (one trap on 21/6/02, in prime habitat, recorded no moths until 03:00 and then recorded 4 individuals.