Angle Shades

Freshly emerged Angle Shades on the wall last night. Probably pupated against house where slightly warmer. Three Angle Shades larvae that I was finding in the egg cartons a couple of weeks back have pupated in the egg cartons. I went out with a torch and looked around the trap a few nights running and was amazed at how many larvae are out and about feeding on the lawn. Along with more Angle Shades and lots of Large Yellow Underwing are good numbers of Square-spot Rustic. I know that Six-striped Rustic larvae are basically identical and so I can't be sure but given that I had about 2 of the latter species at light last year compared to tens and tens of SSR's I'm going for the former as the likely candidate. There were more than 20 larvae within 1 foot radius of my actinic trap all feeding on Festuca rubra (also had one feeding on Groundsel which seems to be popping up everywhere at the moment). Notably, there were no larvae around the MV trap and also far fewer elewhere in the garden away from the actinic trap suggesting these larvae are also attracted to the light to some degree, and in particular that emitted by the actinic lamps. I often find them inside the trap as well and had a Common Footman larva in the MV trap recently.
Marc Botham