In amongst the many Common Wainscot I've found the odd one Smoky Wainscot after checking the hindwings of likely candidates. This one caught my eye, I've never seen one that is black underneath. The hindwings were typical impura.
Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford.
Hello Mark,
ReplyDeleteFrom your upper-side picture I would have put that down as a Common Wainscot and might suggest that the hind-wings were more likely greyish-looking purely because of those aberrant black scales on the undersides.
Smoky does occasionally have a partial second brood but I've seen no evidence of one yet this year locally (that doesn't mean it won't happen/isn't happening, of course!). My last records this year were on 19th August (Bucks) and 24th August (Gwynnedd). I did have September/October records in both 2017 and 2018 and before that in 2008, but usually it is over by mid-August.
Dave, thanks for that. It is a very unsual one so yes, it could be common. Re the ones appearing earlier in the year, having checked Waring & Townsend it seems distiguishing Common & Smoky is not as straightforward as I thought, with some female common having dark hindwings. So how do you tell them apart?
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