Wednesday 19 May 2021

Lychnis or Campion?

It's come to something when a major cause for excitement in a catch is your first Heart and Dart of the year. It's been slooow for weeks in my garden in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire; but there are a few signs of life now, including the individual below. The Lychnis/Campion pairing I've always had trouble with; I'm inclined to call this one a Lychnis (kidney and oval separate? no hint of marbling? outer cross-line looks about right?), but I'm very willing to be corrected.


Possible Lychnis, 17/5/21

Steve Goddard

2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve, I think that you are fairly safe with Lychnis, for the reasons that you give - although the dorsal ends of kidney and oval marks are embedded in a rather diffuse pale area, the pale edging of these marks is separate (i.e., the kidney mark is not drawn out of shape to touch the oval), and the pale sub-terminal line from the 'W' to the dorsum is relatively straight not heavily zig-zagged.

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