Friday 2 April 2021

Another Red Chestnut?

This one appeared near Tring (just into Herts) and I confess I would have trouble separating it from the very variable Clouded Drabs that I get lots of. Can someone confirm it as Red Chestnut, and perhaps help me with what features to look for to be sure?

Thanks, David


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2 comments:

  1. Dave Wilton3 April 2021 at 10:20

    Hi David,
    Yes, that's Red Chestnut. The wing shape is quite different to that of Clouded Drab. Red Chestnut has a very straight leading edge and then a fairly sharp 90 degree angle at the wing-tip, meaning that when fully at rest the moth forms a rectangle. In Clouded Drab the moth looks more triangular when at rest and the wing-tip is slightly hooked. There are sometimes brown forms of Clouded Drab but they're not like the rich red-brown of Red Chestnut. As the field guide says, the only possible confusion species for Red Chestnut really is White-marked which is also out now (see Charles Godfray's nice image about nine posts ago) but that is not a common species.

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  2. David Dennis3 April 2021 at 15:15

    Very helpful, Dave - thank you.

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