Sunday, 18 August 2019

Possible Agriphila selasella, and a tiny micro

In my garden, Agriphila tristella is still quite numerous, but geniculea is beginning to take over. I try and keep an eye open for any selasella candidates, and think I may have 2, photographed below. I think the first one in particular looks a possibility.



In last night's garden trap, I also found this very small micro (fw length just 3.5mm). Can anyone suggest what it might be?



Steve Trigg, Cookham
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9 comments:

  1. Dave Wilton18 August 2019 at 16:45

    Hi Steve,

    I'd agree with your selasella pair. The white band on tristella is usually quite clearly pinched in the middle before it breaks out into the "fingers". A.selasella seems to have become increasingly common locally over the past few years.

    Your final moth is Coptotriche (was Emmetia) marginea.

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  2. Nigel18 August 2019 at 16:46

    Hi Steve, the small micro is Coptotriche marginea.

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  3. Steve Trigg18 August 2019 at 17:05

    Many thanks Dave and Nigel. Coptotriche marginea is a new addition to my garden list. I shall have to look out for the leaf mines on my loganberry bush.

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  4. Martin Harvey18 August 2019 at 18:00

    For what it's worth I agree with Dave, although I always find this a difficult pair to distinguish. There's a really good comparison on Chris Lewis's website:
    https://britishlepidoptera.weebly.com/agriphila-selasella-vs-tristella.html

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  5. Neil Fletcher18 August 2019 at 20:53

    I found Chris Lewis's site the other day, and found the the character of the facial cone helpful. Using this, your photos show this clearly as A. selasella.

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  6. Peter Hall18 August 2019 at 21:01

    Interesting that Chris Lewis says Goaters statement that the median steak is "never white", and copied verbatim in Sterling & Parsons, doesn't hold true. I don't think it holds true either, I've seen plenty of white median steaks in tristella.

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  7. Dave Wilton18 August 2019 at 21:25

    I'll have my median steak rare, please...

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  8. Peter Hall19 August 2019 at 19:12

    It was late...

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  9. Martin Townsend24 August 2019 at 08:04

    Have to say I'm not enirely convinced this is selasella. For one thing the forewing is not smooth-looking. Also, when referring to the facial cone, Chris Lewis does warn that "This is unlikely to be a useful feature when assessing images of live moths." His image will be of dead moths selected to best show the difference I agree that tristella can have a white band and Dave's observation about the band width is useful but probably not to be relied upon completely.

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