At last a warm cloudy night, by far the best so far of the year here in central Oxford (not that that's saying much) with 49 moths of 19 species. Heart and Dart was by far the most prolific with 13 caught, representing the migrants was a Diamond-back Moth and I had the first Treble-lines of the year. I also had three micros which I need help/confirmation on.
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| Monopis obviella or M. crocicapitella (the latter apparently more local) |
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| Monopis laevigella (Skin Moth) |
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| I'm useless at these but I'm wondering about Scoparia basistrigalis/ambigualis |
Hello Adam, I'd agree with your choices of ID on all three. Knowing the size might have helped sort out the first and the last species pair.
ReplyDeleteThe first was rather small (so M. obviella perhaps) and the last was noticeably large which would tend to point towards S. basistrigalis. How common are these in the recording area?
ReplyDeleteI expect the first is indeed obviella which seems to be the more widespread of the two species. Neither is common over here in Bucks but there are only half a dozen or so records for crocicapitella (all proved by dissection) and they are mostly from the same site.
ReplyDeleteOf the scoparids, ambigualis is exceedingly common and by a very wide margin the one most likely to be encountered locally at the moment. However, basistrigalis is still a possibility. In Bucks there are 70 or so records (50+ confirmed by dissection) spread right across the county. Some of those records are indeed from gardens rather than from woodland where it is more likely to be found. However, nearly all of the Bucks records are from mid-June onwards so I would expect a moth found now to look very fresh and your example seems rather tired. I suspect it is just an ambigualis at the larger end of the scale.