When I was walking my butterfly transect at Dancersend Extension on 25 July I spotted this moth on a Field Scabious flower that, at a distance, I initially thought must be a rather unusually marked footman. Once close, I realised it was something else and new to me. I managed to get a couple of photos which I've only just got around to looking at. It looks close to
Oncocera semirubella but with rather more dark markings than the illustrations I have looked at.
Hello Mick,
ReplyDeleteYes, that's semirubella, a very pretty moth when fresh and does fly during the daytime as well as at night. It is another fairly recent arrival into our area, the first Bucks record being from 2004 (Radnage), then from 2012 onwards it began appearing in numbers on many chalk grassland sites throughout the Chilterns. It is now a common sight in that habitat but has spread elsewhere too, for example one came to last night's trap here at Westcott and was the sixth garden visitor this year. It has actually been recorded previously at Dancersend, an early sighting (July 2013) being of one trapped by the bench in Bittam's Wood while another was seen during a BIG meeting in Pavis Wood in July 2018.
One in the trap today in Garsington (OX44)
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