Rare sighting of Pammene ochsenheimeriana 

28th May
Near Shirenewton

Earlier on in the year and indeed not too many weeks ago I struggled to find any micro's around the trap, it was virtually all macro's. Don't get me wrong I have come across some great macro's this year but I couldn't understand why it has taken so long for the 'little guy's' to appear. Maybe the colder weather had set them back.
Tonight though quite a few came to the rescue and of which I know were new to this particular site.

Bactra lancealana, Cauchas rufimitrella, Hedya pruniana Syndemis musculana, a nice colourful Micropterix tunbergella along with possibly two types of longhorn, Nemophora degeerella and hopefully if confirmed Adela croesella.
However there was this other tiny micro, which even under direct torchlight still appeared blacker than the night sky above my head.
Very odd never seen anything like this one before, this warrants further investigation.
Next morning and photoshoot time. Grabbed a few photographs in the morning light but still this guy still appeared blackish/grey with little in the way of markings.
Downloaded the pictures and then and only then I started to see what an unusually marked moth it was. A black band, speckled markings in-between, greys, silver and white also involved in its makeup, quite decorative.
Next job look it up and by its markings I was starting to get hunch about one this being quite  important. Eventually I found it -Black-patch Piercer or Pammene ochsenheimeriana, bit of a mouthful but worthy of a good name I thought.

Black-patch Piercer which is categorised as Red Data Book-2

It was then I saw a red box with a capital R inside on the Norfolk moth site, meaning Red Data Book.
An important moth and one I just had to get confirmed.
Sam Bosanquet after concurring me said of it being only the 2nd record for Gwent and possibly 3rd or 4th for Wales.
I contacted George Tordoff to see if had heard of anymore records. He replied that the first ever sighting for Wales occurred in Radnorshire in 2012. Sam then discovered one just two years ago in 2016 for the V35 County. (see post) but...
George was unaware of any more so this sighting was most likely the 3rd ever sighting for Wales.