Busy night last night with a big swarm of Water Veneer (300+) and a second Small Black Arches - presumably the continued warmth + NEly wind may be helping these to get from Bernwood Forest
A Blog for moth recorders in Bucks, Berks and Oxon
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Interesting crambid
Trapped overnight in East Oxford - looks to me like Platytes alpinella which should be quite distinctive, but which is, according to my books, a sand/shingle coastal specialist, but also occasional immigrant. What is its status in Oxfordshire? Any other opinions welcome.
Busy night last night with a big swarm of Water Veneer (300+) and a second Small Black Arches - presumably the continued warmth + NEly wind may be helping these to get from Bernwood Forest
Busy night last night with a big swarm of Water Veneer (300+) and a second Small Black Arches - presumably the continued warmth + NEly wind may be helping these to get from Bernwood Forest
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Hi Ben, nice pictures and very nice moths!
ReplyDeleteYou do seem to have Platytes alpinella, which is a coastal species found from Devon right the way round to Lincolnshire, but looking at John Langmaid's maps it has previously been recorded in both Berkshire and Oxfordshire so looks to be one of those species which occasionally disperses inland. JRL's notes suggest the first sightings for both VC22 and VC23 were in the 1990s. I don't know how many subsequent records there may have been (perhaps the Martins could oblige?) but I suspect very few if any!
Your second Small Black Arches is also very nice and makes me wonder if it might perhaps have colonized the Shotover/Brasenose/Magdalen Woods complex. Doubtful perhaps, but would be nice if true.
Excellent - many thanks. I'd not been aware of the Langmaid maps, which I've now found by Googling: very useful extra resource.
ReplyDeleteI tweeted a picture of the Platytes alipinella out and elicited a reply that there'd been one caught in Monmouth last night, so perhaps part of an immigration.
Small Black Arches outnumber Least Black Arches this year for me now!
There's actually a link to those micro maps on the right-hand column of this page. I certainly find them very useful. Once the macro atlas is published perhaps BC will get around to sorting out the problem with displaying the macro maps on the NBN - that link hasn't worked for some time now.
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