Micropterix calthella

I carried out a butterfly transect in local oak woodland over lunchtime today - butterflies there were outnumbered many times over by just one species of day-flying moth!  Inspecting the many flowers of wood anemone Anemone nemorosa proved fruitful and most of them yielded one or two examples of Micropterix calthella.  I counted 57 moths in one small area of plants and there will have been many hundreds more than that present.  There seemed to have been a mass emergence because there were quite a few mated pairs amongst them.  A pollen feeder, the moth is common in most of the woodlands around here and will presumably move on to buttercup flowers once the anemones have finished.

Micropterix calthella mated pair, 1st May

Back home at Westcott a newly-emerged Pyrausta aurata was found sunning itself next to our cat-mint.

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks