It's a Common Rustic agg Steve - you will probably get a lot of these over the next few weeks. It's probably Common, but could also be Lesser Common Rustic if it looked small, but these need dissection. I was always under the impression that the small, darker specimens were the ones to keep for possible Lesser Common.
Probably unnecessarily now, but I retain three or four for dissection annually out of the hundreds I get here and amongst them seem to manage to pick out at least one suitable candidate for Lesser Common in most years. It probably varies between local populations but I find that a helpful indicator here can be a smaller individual with the crest on the thorax contrasting sharply with the ground colour of the rest of the moth.
The next one to cause confusion is likely to be Flounced Rustic which should start appearing in about two or three weeks time...!
It's a Common Rustic agg Steve - you will probably get a lot of these over the next few weeks. It's probably Common, but could also be Lesser Common Rustic if it looked small, but these need dissection. I was always under the impression that the small, darker specimens were the ones to keep for possible Lesser Common.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Mark not Steve!
ReplyDeletethanks Adam!
ReplyDeleteProbably unnecessarily now, but I retain three or four for dissection annually out of the hundreds I get here and amongst them seem to manage to pick out at least one suitable candidate for Lesser Common in most years. It probably varies between local populations but I find that a helpful indicator here can be a smaller individual with the crest on the thorax contrasting sharply with the ground colour of the rest of the moth.
ReplyDeleteThe next one to cause confusion is likely to be Flounced Rustic which should start appearing in about two or three weeks time...!
Lesser Common Rustic can be bigger. The image here is a good candidate for Lesser Common Rustic with the dark central band and white reniform stigma
ReplyDelete