I featured the magnificent Red Underwing a couple of posts ago and I was virtually certain that I would soon find one in the trap. So it turned out, with this lovely example roosting happily on an eggbox a couple of nights ago.
It was very obliging during a short photo session. I always tickle and gently shake the various underwings to overcome their great reluctance to show their vivid warning colouration, other than in a brief flash whose sudden-ness is probably part of the defence against predators. I managed to get a glimpse of the underwing too and some detailed shots of the delicate grey and slightly brown patterns on the top forewings.
Therein lay the next stage of this story. I always assume that a moth like this is the standard and common Red Underwing, partly because of the sheer number of very similar moths. None are common and most are very rare, but we have in the UK Minsmere Crimson Underwing, Rosy Underwing, French Red Underwing, Dark Crimson Underwing and Light Crimson Underwing.
I dutifully recorded my moth on iRecord as Red Underwing and thought no more of it until I got an email from iRecord today. It showed that the great moth expert Martin Townsend, co-author of the Moth Bible, had reclassified my moth first as Dark Crimson Underwing and then as Light Crimson Underwing. Both are Red Data Book species, the national UK list of endangered species, and I have never had either before. Here are all three species, from the aforesaid Bible:
I'll keep you in touch with whatever the final decision turns out to be. Meanwhile, here are some more of the current rich crop of night-time guests in the garden here:
Tree-lichen Beauty, Turnip moth about to leave, Blood-vein and Small Dusty Wave - the last on the inside of our greenhouse door.
Burnished Brass, Rosy Rustic, Iron Prominent and Dark Arches
And another lovely micro to finish up with, the Ringed China-mark
No comments:
Post a Comment