I ran my traps at home on the night of 6th September for the first time in six weeks as a result of being away in France for a month. The warm night resulted in a good catch: 368 moths of about 53 species. A few aspects are worth mentioning.
Every so often, I find in my trap a moth which is of smaller than normal size for its species: I expect we all do. However, on Wednesday night an unusual number of such cases was present. I recall small versions of Frosted Orange, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Garden Carpet and Turnip Moth (plus a fifth example, but I forgot to note which one!). There are a couple of examples below, using composite images to compare them with normal-sized individuals caught on the same night. In the case of the Setaceous Hebrew Character, I took two consecutive images at the same distance from the subject, using a prime lens on the tripod-mounted camera.
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| Frosted Orange Newton Longville, 6th September |
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| Setaceous Hebrew Character Newton Longville, 6th September |
There were a couple of very late Ingrailed Clay, one with slightly-deformed wings. This is the normal one:
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| Ingrailed Clay Newton Longville 6/9/23 |
I had three new-for-the-garden species. One is a technicality: a Svensson's Copper Underwing. Previously I have recorded the copper underwings as the aggregate, having only twice examined active individuals to check the hindwings: these were both Amphipyra pyramidea and the experience was too traumatic to repeat on non-anaesthetised moths. For the first time, I anaesthetised all four Amphipyra individuals caight that night and checked the hindwings of all of them. Three were A. pyramidea, but one (also a smallish individual) was A. berbera, so goes onto the garden list as a new species. The other two new-for-the-garden were Epinotia nisella and Nephopterix angustella.
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| Nephopterix angustella Newton Longville, 6th September |
I am left with two mysterious macros. The first is about the size of a Pearly Underwing, but the very eliptical shape of the "oval" stigma doesn't seem right. The second has the greyish tone, peppery appearance and the size of a Vine's Rustic. I suspect it is in the Xestia genus, but the central area of the wing doesn't match anything I can find. The hindwing was essentially plain. It might even be yet another version of Square-spotted Rustic.
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| Mystery 1 |
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| Mystery 2 |
Tim Arnold
Newton Longville, Bucks
Hello Tim,
ReplyDeleteI'll have another look in the morning to see if I've changed my mind in daylight, but I'd suggest your Ingrailed Clay is actually a second-brood Small Square-spot while Mystery 1 and Mystery 2 could both be Square-spot Rustic. Mystery 2 actually looks quite interesting, but it may just be slightly malformed (both in size and markings) in that the head seems rather too large for the wings.
Thanks Dave! I don't know why I missed the Small Square-spot.
ReplyDeleteIt's the shape of the oval and kidney marks as well as its size which made me doubt Square-spot Rustic (and indeed most other species!) for Mystery 1, even if the general pattern fits. Mystery 2 could well be Square-spot Rustic. So taking the five species I noted as small, plus the smallish Svensson's Copper Underwing, the deformed Small Square-spot and the odd-looking Mystery 2, that makes eight small or odd-looking moths in an evening.
Some of these might have been larvae during last year's drought, but that couldn't be the explanation for the affliction of others such as the second-generation Small Square-spot.