Just going through last year's records and found a moth I wasn't sure about when it came to my light trap in Culham on 24th July. Is it a Double Dart? The light scales within the kidney mark and the resting position don't seem quite right.
Will Atkinson
I think it is Will, but the markings are more pronounced than usual. There is a somewhat similar example of the Norfolk moths website https://www.norfolkmoths.co.uk/?bf=21140
ReplyDeletePerhaps it is, and I haven't any other suggestions, but I'm really not sure. Every year I see a handful of Double Darts both in my garden as well as in the Marsh Gibbon Rothamsted trap and they vary very little indeed in shape, colour and markings from the illustration in WT&L. Your moth may perhaps be in an unnatural pose (just out of the fridge?) and there's no indication of size, but the resting wing shape there seems too narrow to me. Double Dart usually has a broader appearance than that. I would have kept the moth for closer examination.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Garden Dart to me. I'm not far from Culham (Didcot) and get Garden Dart in July with well marked individuals that look like this. The one on UK moths isn't far off: http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/euxoa-nigricans/
ReplyDeleteMarc's right that a Garden Dart
ReplyDeleteThank you all. I think I'm convinced by the suggestion of Garden Dart, though I don't think I'd have recognised it from my field guide (Sorry Martin). I'm embarrassed to say I looked for the Garden Dart in Google images and found a really good match to my specimen ... in fact it was my specimen. I had forgotten that I queried it in this blog last July, when Dave Wilton confirmed my suggestion of Garden Dart, but I forgot to update my notes.
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