Lemony Pale

I'm not expecting anyone to jump up and down quite as vigorously as I am doing at the arrival of this moth.  It's not exactly an eye-catcher though as so often with moths, its subtle colouring rewards a careful and unhurried look. 

I admit absolutely that it's the sort of visitor to the moth trap which usually doesn't take up too much of my time because brown or grey UK species have a habit of looking too much alike. Indeed, my lazy option of the iPhone's Bug-ID got this one as wrong as I would have done, suggesting a Common Quaker (not in season here) or the current default for an unknown brown/grey moth, Vine's Rustic.

Luckily, a much newer recorder than my aged self put a photo - shown left - on our local moth-recording Facebook page earlier this week which she thought might be a Pale-lemon Sallow, and our generous experts soon confirmed that this was indeed so.  I was struck that such an unusual moth in these parts looked so, well, ordinary, and I wondered if I would recognise one in my own trap. Last night, I got the chance and passed the test. Yet another newcomer in my many long years of shining a light at night.  This truly is a wonderful year in that regard. 

The Pale-lemon Sallow has taken a very long time to  venture out of the Southern coastal rim and parts of East Anglia which have been its sparsely-populated UK base since the first record in the 1893, although it has a lifestyle which should favour the adventurous. The caterpillars feed on the catkins of black or Lombardy poplars and fall to the ground when the seeds do, continuing their meals as the catkins gently decompose. The larvae are so light that they are not hurt by their sudden descent without a parachute.

The trap had quite a number of other good moths in the eggboxes this morning and here's a selection: Turnip, Green-brindled Crescent, two nicely-different Beaded Chestnuts, Large Wainscot, Red-line Quaker and a spiky-looking Cypress Carpet, whose wing pattern is very similar to the much small Cypress Pug, shown in my final photo.  It must be something they ate.