Platyedra subcinerea is a micro-moth in family Gelechiidae, first found in Berkshire by Marc Botham in 2015, and it has been regular in his garden since then. It's also been found in Maidenhead, and then last night two people found it at either end of the county: Robin Buxton in Harwell and David Short in Windsor. I don't know what the situation is on Bucks or Oxon but it seems to be on the move.
For a gelechiid it is reasonably distinctive! It has characteristic small black spots set in paler ovals within a speckled background colour. Fresh specimens should be recogisable from a photo.
Photo credit: Vlad Proklov on Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC
More information is available on the national recording scheme page:
www.gelechiid.co.uk/species/platyedra-subcinerea
Worth looking out for!
Thanks for the heads-up, Martin. I think there's still just the one record for Bucks, from Burnham Beeches way back in 2005.
ReplyDeleteYes, I uploaded a very nice image of the dissection on the Moth Dissection website. Next to one from Didcot
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be reasonably common in Didcot where i have trapped it annually in both gardens I have lived at since moving here (opposite ends of Didcot). Tom Stevenson posted one on facebook from his Benson garden (VC23) earlier this year too.
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