I have now finally caught up with my photos and records after getting my PC back from repair. The warm sunny weather in the last week of May brought good numbers of moths, including 49 species on 25th. On the other hand, the cooler and damper weather that arrived with the beginning of meteorological summer has reduced the numbers: 34 species on 1st, a miserable ten species on 5th and 25 on the 8th. I'm running the traps again tonight as the weather forecast was dry, but when I went out to check the traps at 23:00 I found that it was drizzling.
The numbers of Treble Lines are now declining from a peak of 26 on 25th May: there were only two on the 8th June. Heart & Dart are more than compensating with a total of 92 on 8th June. Many new-for-the-year species have arrived and quite a few new-for-the-garden. Amongst the new entries on the garden list was what I think is Neospaleroptera nubilana. I'm not sure of this as I can't see any sign of a cross-band (even obscure) and the field guide describes it as "local" and flying in July and August. Unfortunately, despite refrigeration, this one escaped during photography.
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Neosphaleroptera nubilana
Newton Longville 8th June
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Second individual
Newton Longville 11th June
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Cochylis molliculana
Newton Longville 25th (top) & 27th May
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Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks
PS. Following a prompt from Blogger, I switched to the new version. This has meant that I've had to re-learn the best way to insert photos - not least because it now ignores where you were in the text and seemingly always adds the photo to the bottom. Fortunately, dragging it to the right place now seems to work reliably. On the other hand, the photo is left-justified and clicking the centre-align button jumps it up to the top and leaves it left-aligned. The secret appears to be to turn on the caption, and then the picture aligns itself properly. "Preview" works in-window, instead of opening another window: click on the "eye" to toggle it on and off.
Hello Tim,
ReplyDeleteThat does look like a candidate for Neosphaleroptera nubilana to me. If you get it again (the chances are that you will) could you please retain a specimen for dissection? There aren't too many records for Bucks and the closest to you is from Stewkley a couple of years ago so it would be nice to extend it further north into the MK area. Don't worry about the date either! Of my nine records only one was in July, the remainder being in June with the earliest on the 13th (in 2018, dissected).
Are they quite variable? This specimen looks very different to the one I trapped in the garden last year.
DeleteYes they are variable, Adam. Most of those I've seen have been almost devoid of markings apart from those spots. However, since writing the comment above I've done a bit more reading (MoGBI Vol.5) which now makes me doubt that Tim's moth could have been nubilana: "Labial palps very small, not visible from above." The palps in Tim's photo are quite clearly visible from above so if MoGBI is correct then this moth is more likely to have been a Cnephasia.
DeleteHello Dave,
DeleteThe good news is that I caught another very similar-looking moth last night, and I was able to take a photograph from a 45 degree angle without losing it. It is going into the freezer and will find its way to Peter. I'll edit this post and add the photo shortly.
The bad news is that this moth also has labial palps which are visible from above and the angle has enabled me to notice a scale tuft. I've also found quite a lot of photographs of N. nubilana on lepiforum.de and they all have much shorter palps than what I've caught and no prominence.
The other moth is indeed Cochylis molliculana. I had the first for Bucks in 2010 (at Moulsoe on the Beds border) and since then it has been on the rampage (...I may have mentioned this before!). It should turn up in most garden catches across the county now. Here at Westcott it has become by far the most common Cochylis species.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on Blogger too - I haven't yet tried composing a message under the "New Blogger" but, for now at least, it seems that the "Old Blogger" is going to remain there to fall back on.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the "new version" is in flux. I edited the post just now to add a photo, and the pop-up window for uploading had changed again, offering me new options to upload from my phone, from the web, or from other places - but initially, not from my PC! I cancelled and tried again, and this time there was an option to upload from my PC - and it even went straight to the desired place in the post, with the photo centred!
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