Aggregates and other things

I'm sure newcomers to mothing will have got used to aggregating records for moths like the Cnephasia micros and the Oligia (Minor) macros which can't be told apart without reference to their genitalia.  I've had further species like that in the garden over the past couple of nights, including at least one of the three Ermine micro-moths which can't be separated on looks (Yponomeuta padella, Yponomeuta malinellus & Yponomeuta cagnagella) as well as Common/Lesser Common Rustic and the Ear species.

Yponomeuta species, Westcott 1st July

Common/Lesser Common Rustic, Westcott 1st July

Ear species, Westcott 2nd July

The three Yponomeuta moths feed on blackthorn/hawthorn (padella), apple (malinellus) and spindle (cagnagella) and the only safe way to get them to species is to have reared them from their larval webs on the correct food-plant (dissection of adults is of no help at all).  I have all three plants in the garden and I suspect I get all three species but the only larvae I've found here have been those of cagnagella on our spindle.  Common Rustic and Lesser Common Rustic can not safely be separated on looks so, for site records to species, one or two will need dissection.  The same is true of the Ears.  The only resident in our area is the fairly common Ear Moth but we are relatively close to populations of Saltern Ear along the Thames Estuary from which there are occasional wanderers.  Large Ear has also been recorded in our area, hence the need for dissection or else recording as an aggregate.

     In other news, I finally had luck with the pheromone lure for Lunar Hornet Moth this morning.  The lure was placed out in the garden inside a trap at 11.30am and within fifteen minutes had attracted the single male shown below.

Lunar Hornet Moth, Westcott 3rd July

Amongst last night's rather poor collection of moths in the garden traps was my first Drinker of the year, unusually a female.

Drinker, Westcott 2nd July

Finally, this morning I noticed the early stages of Lyonetia prunifoliella on blackthorn just down the road from our house.  I had an adult in the garden trap for the first time last September but this is the closest to home that I've found its mines.  The species apparently disappeared from the UK back in the early 1900s, but was noted again during 2007 in southern coastal counties and seems now to be spreading northwards quite rapidly so it should be possible to find it anywhere in our area.  Its mines are quite unlike anything else which uses blackthorn (this seems to be the only recorded food-plant in the UK although others are understood to be used in Europe) and more often than not they're in batches as on the stem below, each mine eventually taking over almost the entire leaf.  

Mines of Lyonetia prunifoliella, Westcott 3rd July

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks