The ditches in our local area are full of willowherb (Epilobium spp) and during the winter months I often find inside our house examples of some of the Mompha species which feed on them. Four appear here in that way, Mompha epilobiella, Mompha subbistrigella, Mompha jurassicella and Mompha bradleyi. Of the others which hibernate as adults I've had langiella once to light but never found it indoors, while neither divisella (seemingly absent from Bucks) nor sturnipennella (very rare in the county) have been found here.
This month I've seen epilobiella a couple of times already (easy to identify because of its overall light brown shading). Yesterday evening I caught the moth below flying around in our kitchen and I suspect that it is jurassicella, although that one and bradleyi are quite difficult to separate especially when they're no longer fresh. The former is far more common here than the latter (50+ records for jurassicella, an annual find indoors with many confirmed by dissection, and four for bradleyi, all confirmed by dissection with the most recent sighting in 2019). This one will be retained to be sure which of the two it is.
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| Likely Mompha jurassicella, Westcott 24th November |
The actinic light is still being run here nightly despite the steep drop in temperature and, so far at least, I've only had one blank night (the 22nd). Last night produced Winter Moth (3) and Scarce Umber (1). The only other species I've had over the past six nights have been December Moth, Red-green Carpet, Mottled Umber and Brick.
Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks
