Rather like buses, Hedge Rustics seem to be lacking for ages and then all turn up together. I can now add my own report of two individuals to the two recent reports of Hedge Rustic in this blog. Both of mine were caught last Friday night (2nd). The first one I found was more tatty than the one which Martin Harvey provisionally identified as a Hedge Rustic, on top of which it was also very dark and looked narrow, so it caused me quite a lot of head-scratching about whether it was actually a Straw Underwing or even a Black Rustic. One clue in favour if it being a Hedge Rustic was that the antennae were bipectinate, which gave me the courage to use my ten thumbs to look at the hindwing: whitish apart from the fuzzy subterminal line. I hope others agree with my ID. The second individual was much less of a puzzle. Looking at the online atlas, these seem to constitute the first records in my hectad since the 1970s.
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| Hedge Rustic Newton Longville, 2 September |
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| Hedge Rustic Newton Longville, 2 September |
I have also joined the Scrobipalpa ocellatella club: eleven likely-looking candidates turned up and I have retained one for its genitalia to be done. Having had all of the very large Leyland cypresses in the garden felled due to the damage caused by storm Eunice last winter, I assumed that it would be the end of records of Cypress Pug for me, so I was happy to find one in the trap last Friday night.
To add to a satisfying night, I also caught my first Dewick's Plusia which may also be the first record for the hectad; the closest previous records being from the late Gordon Redford on the other side of Milton Keynes. The non-lepidopteran catch included the unusually large and strange-looking species of leafhopper, Ledra aurita.
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| Dewick's Plusia Newton Longville, 2 September 2022 |
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| Ledra aurita Newton Longville, 2 September 2022 |
Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteNice! Hedge Rustic seems to be having a better-than-usual year locally and I wish it would discover my garden! The bug Ledra aurita is quite common in our area but isn't often seen during the daytime, so for the most part records of it are dependant on moth-trappers recording non-moths in their catch each night - which I hope you all do when you can!
The one on the left is a Black Rustic.
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