Another nice, showy arrival this morning in the distinctive shape of two Pebble Prominents, their stylish wings marked with the eponymous pebble shape and their stance the crouch which is shared by all the Prominent family. This is the second of the tribe to make its presence known to me this year, after the Swallow Prominent which came the other night.
The Carpet moths, too, are increasing in both number and species. Two which are new for the year were in the eggboxes this morning: a Red twin-spot and a Green .
In the world of micro-moths, a delicate Plume was asleep on the inside of the trap's black bowl, a background which ruins photography, at least in my hands. Unusually, it allowed itself to be enticed on to a scrap of aggbox for better quality pictures which show it above, from below and from on top. I do not know which Plume it is, I'm afraid, but suspect that it is this blog's old friend the Common one, Emmelina monodactyla.
This little chap led me a contrasting dance, scurrying about before allowing me to get this one picture which is more or less in focus. I am not sure of his or her identity, in spite of the distinctive markings, but I do know that the tiddler below is Epiphyas postvittana, the Light Brown Apple moth. Update: thanks to my Commentor, below, I was put on the right track with the Elachista family. Peter Hall of the ever-helpful Upper Thames Moths blog then suggested E. apicipunctella and sure enough, when I checked back through the blog, I found that this visited me in early May last year and in 2015, when the super-helpful Ben Sale of Essex Moths first ID-ed it for me. Memory...
Finally, in the last eggbox which I examined, here's one of those big tabby cats, a Brindle Beauty. A good night's tally, all in all, and a sign that - although colder weather is forecast - the moth year is getting into its stride.
6 comments:
Hi Martin
Your little black and white micro is making me think Elachista. The seemingly white head is pushing me towards Elachista albifrontella 138 & 219 in micro bible and 106/107 in Manley, but it would be a little early. Probably time to get the Upper Thames begging bowl out again I'm afraid :)
Hi and apologies for the delay in getting back to thank you. That was my guess too with the same hesitations about the date. Peter Hall on the UTM blog suggests Elachista apicipunctella so I will go for that. At least it isn't illustrated in the Micro Bible so I need feel less shame... Thanks again, as ever and all warm wishes, M
PS I've just belatedly checked back over my records and see that E. apicipunctella came here last year and in 2016 and was originally kindly ID-ed for me by Ben Sale of the excellent Essex Moths blog. All best again, M
No problem Martin, I enjoy looking through your blog and always appreciate the fact you make an effort to reply to commenters. I ended up here while trying(and failing) to identify a caterpillar while you were still up in Leeds.I like your informative and entertaining posts, but also the occasional chance to try and identify a moth with the bonus that one of your pros will know the true answer so I might see where I've gone wrong should that be the case.
Glad to have helped in the past :) Hope all is well.
Hi both - it's such a great help having commentors who are better at ID-ing than I am (not hard, admittedly). Good to hear from you Ben - sorry, I've not been over to your blog lately but will have a good read when the grandchildren are out of the way. It's also indeed a great blessing to have Upper Thames Moths' corps of experts plus other very useful websites such as Hants Moths' Flying Tonight.
All warm wishes again
M
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