Saturday 4 May 2019

Pulpit Hill micros

The sun appeared for just long enough at Pulpit Hill today to get some glimpses of the gorgeous Violet Cosmet, Pancalia loewenhoekella. My life's ambition to get a really good photo of it still remains to be achieved, but these give a hint of the fantastic colours on this tiny moth.



Somewhat less colourful are these tunnels and frass left by larvae of the Barred White Clothes Moth (silly name!) Nemapogon clematella. In the photo below it is the greyish and brownish granular stuff stretching between the small brown blobs of the fungus Hypoxylon fuscum that give away the presence of the moth's larvae. The fungus grows on decaying Hazel branches. I've not often found signs of the moth but I suspect it's quite common if looked for.


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1 comment:

  1. Dave Wilton4 May 2019 at 19:57

    Hi Martin, I think that's the first VC24 record (out of 70+) for N.clematella which isn't of the adult moth - nice find, especially as it doesn't appear to have been recorded before from the Grangelands/Pulpit Hill SSSI!

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