Friday 4 August 2017

Dagger yesterday, cloak today


I am not really to be trusted on the ID of moths like the one shown above whose relatively nondescript  colour and patterning defies my most earnest efforts to pin it down. But I wonder if it is a Cloaked Minor, which would be a newcomer for me albeit not an uncommon moth. It has the look of a faded specimen of one of the CM's several versions (whose variations are shared by similar moths and add to my bafflement). I shall have to put it to the experts on the Upper Thames Moths blog


No such problems with the showy Ruby Tiger above and I am confident that the moth below is a Pale Mottled Willow, although there is a somewhat similar species appropriately called the Uncertain.


Then we have a handsome Straw Underwing seen in profile and a rather dull-coloured example of the usually purply - and hence well-named -  micro Pyrausta purpuralis.



Finally another micro which I think, after much scrutiny, of the Micro-moth Bible, to be Acrobasis consociella, another novelty for my list if so. That's a tiny plus at a time of year when the Summer moths are starting to tail off and the Autumn ones have yet to emerge.


3 comments:

AlexW said...

Since those summer moths are dwindling, why not get a few eggs out of them before it's too late? If you manage to knock eggs/pupae out of diapause early, you will have plenty of company on otherwise lonely winters.

Cheers again

Martin Wainwright said...

Great idea, Alex - and the moths have immediately obliged. Check out my next post

all warm wishes

Martin

Anonymous said...

Hi Martin

Your moth appears to have a red head which Im fairly sure denotes Acrobasis advenella. Apologies if im mistaken, but could be worth a second look.