Hi Andy, Your Aplocera is a female so in this case the abdomen doesn't really help, but looking at the forewing markings it seems to me to be closer to Lesser Treble-bar. For what it is worth, I rarely get Treble-bar in the garden here but Lesser is very common and I'm getting two or three second brood specimens per night at the moment. The tortrix is a well-marked Cochylimorpha straminea.
Hi Andy & Dave, When trying to classify a female Treble-bar/Lesser Treble-bar I recently looked at Chris Lewis' site (British Lepidoptera), often a mine of information in resolving similar species. On the Treble-bar page he notes that the female abdomen narrows significantly on the last two segments relative to the proximal segments, giving a stepped appearance and shows examples (https://britishlepidoptera.weebly.com/192-aplocera-plagiata-treble-bar.html). While he does not show the female abdomen for Lesser Treble-bar he does say that this 'pinched' appearance is not seen, and both the present example (above) and my own photos (admittedly of only one example) do seem to show a more gradual curving of the abdomen towards its end in LT-b.
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteYour Aplocera is a female so in this case the abdomen doesn't really help, but looking at the forewing markings it seems to me to be closer to Lesser Treble-bar. For what it is worth, I rarely get Treble-bar in the garden here but Lesser is very common and I'm getting two or three second brood specimens per night at the moment. The tortrix is a well-marked Cochylimorpha straminea.
Hi Andy & Dave,
ReplyDeleteWhen trying to classify a female Treble-bar/Lesser Treble-bar I recently looked at Chris Lewis' site (British Lepidoptera), often a mine of information in resolving similar species. On the Treble-bar page he notes that the female abdomen narrows significantly on the last two segments relative to the proximal segments, giving a stepped appearance and shows examples (https://britishlepidoptera.weebly.com/192-aplocera-plagiata-treble-bar.html). While he does not show the female abdomen for Lesser Treble-bar he does say that this 'pinched' appearance is not seen, and both the present example (above) and my own photos (admittedly of only one example) do seem to show a more gradual curving of the abdomen towards its end in LT-b.
Thank you. In six years I have only recorded 2 Treble-bar here and no Lesser Treble-bar.
ReplyDelete