The night felt quite "slow", but it turned out better than expected and I was pleasantly surprised to reach a provisional total (subject to some confirmations) of 79 species, of which 38 macros and a particularly pleasing 41 micros. Amongst these, I have a few queries:
The first seems (from wing shape and general pattern) like a particularly obscure Rhopobota naevana. The second fell victim to my clumsiness and might be to hard to ID. I tentatively wrote down Tineola bisselliella based on wing colour, but in that case it is missing all of the scales on its head and it could be another species.
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| Rhopobota naevana? Newton Longville, 21 July |
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| Tineid Newton Longville, 21 July |
After photography, the pot containing the third micro was mistakenly put into the "release" pile instead of into the much smaller "dissection" pile. I think it is Agonopterix heracliana: it had no pinkish colour underneath, but that might not be good enough to be accepted. Forewing 9mm. The final moth with tentative ID is a tired-looking macro which I think it is probably a Dingy Shears.
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| Agonopterix heracliana? Newton Longville, 21 July |
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| Dingy Shears? Newton Longville, 21 July |
A total of six Common Rustic/Lesser Common Rustic moths appeared. That might not be of any remark for most other people, but it is as many as I get here in a whole year (the last 4 years I have had annual totals of 6, 0, 3 and 2).
In terms of "bycatch", I found the rather misleadingly-named burying beetle Necrodes littoralis in one of the moth traps: I get one or two individuals most years and finding it very far from the coast is far from unusual. I did get a significantly more unusual burying beetle when I ran a trap in Winslow on 7th July for a public mothing demonstration the next morning. An orange-banded species arrived and after running it through the key on the Silphidae Recording Scheme site, it must be Nicrophorus interruptus, which has a fairly thin distribution in southern Britain: there seem to be only ten records for VC24.
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| Nicrophorus interruptus Winslow, 7th July |
Tim Arnold
Newton Longville
Hi Tim,
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the the Agonopterix, Peter has told me that males can be done by dissection but not necessarily females. However he also commented that "wing diagnostics are usually enough to get these two to species level".
I find that the pattern of bands on the hindwing cilia is relatively easy to see with a hand lens, if you constrain the moth in a small glass tube.
Hello Tim,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rhopobota naevana. The moth is much more variable in markings than the single image in the field guide would suggest (although see the text), but the way it holds its wings when at rest is diagnostic. You could be correct with the tineid but its condition means that it would need dissection to be sure of the ID. I'd agree with the other two IDs as well. Agonopterix heracliana has had quite a noticeable emergence over the past week (I had a dozen in local woodland two nights ago). Any claim for ciliella, which is rare in Bucks, would need to be backed up by evidence.
Thanks to you both. In fact, I had three identical-looking moths in good condition that after a long look I put down as Agonopterix heracliana, echoing Dave's experience of a significant emergence recently. The largest of the three was meant to have been put aside for dissection just in case. The reason for my hesitation is that there seems to be some doubt about whether the presence of any pinkish colour and/or five lines in the hindwing cilia are reliable characteristics to distinguish between A. heracliana and A. ciliella (especially given that these species over-winter as adults and so wear can be significant): see for example the Norfolk Moths site and Lepiforum (especially https://forum.lepiforum.org/post/300947).
ReplyDeleteThe sizes seem to partly overlap. MoGBI 4(1) has two occurrences of the word "usually" in describing the differences between the two species and SPL uses "may" and "often". Most UK sites seem to require gen. det. for ciliella and not for heracliana. My approach is going to be that if I suspect ciliella is at least possible, I will ask Peter to look at it; but if there is nothing to indicate the possibility of ciliella then I'll default to heracliana.