WHEN SHOULD WE RUN THE MOTH TRAP IN WINTER?

In order to be able to choose favourable nights for moth recording in winter, we ran a garden moth trap on 319 nights over four winter seasons, irrespective of the weather, but recording forecasts of night-time temperature, wind, rain or snow and moonlight on 234 nights. In all, 501 moths belonging to 34 species or aggregates were recorded, six of which were winterspecific. We identified a major positive influence of maximum forecast night temperature and a negative effect of maximum forecast wind speed, which together with the year explained 35% of the difference in catch between nights. These findings allow favourable nights for moths to be chosen on the basis the weather forecast from the evening when the trap is switched on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]