A Blog for moth recorders in Bucks, Berks and Oxon
Saturday, 28 November 2020
Another Northern Winter Moth
My garden moths seem to be lagging a little behind some others, as I have only just recorded my first 2 December Moths and I have yet to see a Winter Moth. However, I did find my very first Northern Winter Moth in the garden trap last night. Thanks to earlier posts, I could identify it straight away. The pale hindwings protruding from under the forewings were particularly noticeable.
Steve Trigg, Cookham
Hi Steve
ReplyDeleteThese rather drab species can in fact be surprisingly difficult to ID from posted photographs but before I even read your text I had this as November Moth agg. This late in the year its most likely to be Autumnal Moth. Note the more shouldered forewing in particular
Martin
Just as an addendum - slight ambiguity in that the more shouldered FW base doesn't make it autumnata it just makes it an Epirrita. As it happens I caught a very similar one last night but it was female unfortunately as autumnata would have been new for the garden. I also got 2 populi, 1 brumata, 1 gamma, 1 xylostella and 1 postvittana. I rarely get that many in late November. So much for the season being over. I have always found that the best nights at this time of year are the calm nights even if it is less than 10C. Last night it was 9C at dusk and still 8C before dawn about 6 am.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments Martin. I guess I was too keen to record my first Northern Winter Moth. I should have paid more attention to the wing shape, but I was probably thinking that all the November Moths had finished for the year. It does show how valuable this blog is for sharing knowledge and putting some of us straight when we get our ids wrong. At least I didn't caption the picture with the wrong id!
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