Wednesday, 12 August 2020

More comments and questions

 I assume the fairy fresh looking Small Elephant Hawk-moth caught on 10th August is probably a second generation. The first one I have recorded since 25th June.
Micros
Is the first an Epinotia species or similar? (7.5mm)
I assume the second is Agriphila selasella.
The third Cochylis sp. ? (7.5mm)
Finally a nice fresh Tissue is my only macro addition to my garden list for a while.




Andy Newbold, Sibford Ferris, Oxon.
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5 comments:

  1. Dave Wilton12 August 2020 at 16:53

    Hi Andy,

    I had a Small Elephant Hawk-moth last night to add to another in the garden on the 4th and I think you are right that these must be an attempt at a second brood. Of your micros, the first is Pammene fasciana, the second is Agriphila selasella and the third Cochylis molliculana.

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  2. Andy Newbold13 August 2020 at 06:45

    Many thanks as always for your comments and help.

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  3. Martin Townsend13 August 2020 at 07:57

    Ah, so we're into our annual tristela/selasella debate :-). What makes you say selasella Dave? This looks very much like tristella to me. The torticid has a dark throrax and is therefore surely more likely ot be dubitana?

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  4. Dave Wilton13 August 2020 at 11:53

    Hi Martin,

    Well, the Agriphila does look good for selasella to me unless I'm not understanding the differences correctly. The white bar isn't pinched in the middle which seems to be the most obvious difference between it and tristella. Selasella can have the "fingers" of tristella to some extent at least, as the Lepiforum images show. However, looking at Lepiforum's images of tristella I'm left a little confused because they don't seem to show our typical forms very well at all (...but then again they are dealing with moths in Germany, not the UK). When selasella first started appearing in the garden here in some numbers in 2014 I had half a dozen dissected by Peter and they were all correct so I've been happy with my IDs since then, but maybe I should get some more checked to be sure!

    The cochylid is definitely molliculana, though. Compare the images of dubitana with those of molliculana on Lepiforum. Dubitana is a much "cleaner" moth in its white areas and far more heavily marked in the darker areas. Molliculana does usually have dark scales on the thorax (another error in MoGBI Vol.5) and Andy's moth certainly shows yellowish palps whereas those on dubitana should be white.

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  5. Martin Townsend13 August 2020 at 21:02

    Dave you'll have to remind me where this character about the white bar being pinched in the middle came from. I can't find it in Sterling and Parsons or in Goater. It does often become become abruptly narrower in tristella but not always (as some of the lepiforum ones show) and there is a tendency for it to be narrower overall in the much more variable tristella, but by no means is this diagnostic either. The two books mentioned both state that tristella never has a white band, but that is erroneous. Neither mention the fingers and not surprisingly because these vary in extent in both species so are not helpful. For me the plainer, smoother looking forewing of selasella make it stand out and the shape of the termen is confirmatory. This one might possibly be selasella but we can't be certain from this. The lepiforum series shows several forms that occur in abundance in Britain but also a surprisingly large number of plain forms, so those are probably more frequent on the continent.

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