Thursday 19 August 2021

Brocade, brindle, nutmeg or what?

My initial thoughts on potting this up overnight on 17th August in my garden in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, were that it was Knot Grass or Poplar Grey - but a quick glance in better light in the morning seemed to imply otherwise. My next theory was Pale-shouldered Brocade, and it does seem to have some features in common with that, but the lack of a broad black bar in the centre of the forewing seems pretty damning in that context (and a number of photos on the blog over the past few years of Pale-shouldered don't look especially similar). So I'm left undecided between Pale-shouldered and quite a range of other species - brindles, nutmegs, etc. Its forewing length was about 20mm. I'd be grateful if anyone could shed some light.

Unknown macro, 17/8/21

Steve Goddard

4 comments:

  1. Have you considered Copper Underwing?
    Phil T

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Phil -- not really (I'm familiar with the species -- I've already had quite a few this year -- and the specimen didn't really send me in that direction).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Steve,
    This one appears regularly to catch out the unwary - it is a second-brood Nutmeg. Not really visible from the photo, but the first thing I notice with the moth in one's hand is that it is clearly a wimp of a noctuid, nowhere near as "chunky" as the other species you've been looking at!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha! -- thank you, Dave. That makes good sense: its wimpiness may be what sent me in the direction of Knot Grass or similar at very first sight. I'll have to check, but I think that may be a first for me. I'm slightly relieved the nutmeg species were at least on my radar for it.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.