Thursday 6 August 2015

A few queries

We haven't in fact been too badly flummoxed over recent nights in Wolvercote, Oxon, but there are a few below that we'd be grateful for confirmation/correction on: a couple which I suppose are Lesser Cream Wave (but actually look pretty dissimilar, now I look at them...); what I hope might be confirmed as a Plain Pug, since it's fairly well marked; a possible Knot Grass from last month, and a presumed Small Emerald from 2nd August; and what I think must be the pretty common hoverfly Syrphus ribesii, just because we thought it was rather striking. All confirmations/other suggestions gratefully received.

Steve and Xander Goddard

Possible Lesser Cream Wave, 2/8/15

Possible Lesser Cream Wave, 17/7/15

Possible Plain Pug, 3/8/15

Possible Knot Grass, 17/7/15

Possible Small Emerald, 2/8/15

Presumed Syrphus ribesii, 2/8/15

5 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,

    First pic looks like a worn Riband Wave to me but rest of moths look right (in my opinion at least), The hoverfly is one of the Xanthogramma species and most likely X. pedissequum but there's another species in the mix these days which looks very similar - X. stacklebergi - and I am no hoverfly expert :). Super looking fly though.

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  2. Many thanks, Marc: I love the way the fly looks almost made of plastic!

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  3. Hello Steve, there's no size indication by the top picture and I think it more likely to be a worn Small Fan-footed Wave. Like Marc, I agree with your IDs for the other moths, though.

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  4. I agree with Dave on Small FF Wave and was my first thought, but I assumed you thought it could be a Lesser Cream Wave because it was the right size - shows how important scale is :)

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  5. Sorry -- didn't manage to get a ruler to it before it flew off...

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