Pug

Help needed with this nice and fresh pug.

Dave Ferguson, Beaconsfield

Pale male Muslins

Emperors apart, my main interest at the moment is Muslin moths and specifically a pale version of the male which is coming to my MV trap regularly  Above are the two 'forms', both from on top and frontal views showing how differently-coloured the Sixties hair-do is (mind you, many of us are reverting to this during the lockdown) and how the yellow breeches are paler too.  I Googled 'pale Muslin moths' and came up with this link which suggests that the 'Irish' form may be more widespread. Is there anything in this, do you think?  Meanwhile, I was anonymously left a third batch of what look like Emperor eggs on the wall near the trap last night. My female is still sitting placidly in the shed, free to go at any time but apparently content.  Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

A very early Sycamore

Surprised to find this in my trap last night.  Have had Sycamore in May but never before in April. Strange times!

Richard Ellis
Chorleywood

Glorious green dancing moths

While following a footpath for today's exercise walk I saw a few individuals of the Green Longhorn moth Adela reaumurella, the first ones I've seen this year. And then I found a swarm of the males dancing round a small sallow tree. An absolute joy to watch them making the most of the sunshine.

Don't forget the daytime micros!

Our garden colony of the smart little day-flying micro Incurvaria masculella began flying yesterday with a single sighting, while today two were found active in the shelter of the large hawthorn on which they live.

Incurvaria masculella, Westcott

Other species active in the sunshine over the last week or so have included the long-horn Adela reaumurella (only singletons noted here so far, including another one today taking its life in its hands by dancing above our blackthorn in the stiff easterly breeze) and the very handsome Esperia sulphurella which is associated with dead wood.

Esperia sulphurella, Westcott

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Eggs of two sizes

After a damp and chilly day when nothing happened, a suitor turned up late yesterday afternoon for my Empress and overnight I have been given a clutch of eggs. Actually, two clutches. On the mesh of the covering-sieve where she was living quietly were the small ones, left. Above, a larger version beside an Empress - I suspect the same one, as the original was no longer in the shed where the sieve was - which was in the MV trap this morning.

Also in the eggboxes was this unusually pale (in my experience) Muslin below, again with his antennae out, although he didn't react at all when I gently peeled away his corner of the eggbox for a better photo.   Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

What's in a name?

Among the few moths caught last night this rather early Cinnabar. Artists or chemists may know the origin of its name (but I had to look it up in Wikipedia): cinnabar is the red form of mercury sulphide – an historic source of the scarlet pigment known as vermilion (or vermillion) used in art works since antiquity. While the rock may not look a good match for the colour of the moth, the pigment is.

          Cinnabar mercury ore
                                                                                  (Photo: Chris Ralph [public domain])
     
John Thacker, Harwell

Tilehurst Berks

Only 12 moths and 8 species last night. A very early Silver Y and the first Lunar Marbled Brown of the season for the garden.
Also another Quaker that could be a Common or a Powdered. For me, I think it is a Powdered.

Micro help

Found in the moth trap on Saturday morning at Wooburn Common south Bucks. Very small about 8mm looks like a tortricdae, but I cannot find similar in my books / on-line.

 

Help - Thanks Peter

Chestnut?

I'd be grateful for help identifying this chestnut please in my moth trap at Jordans (nr Beaconsfield) 10 April.  Seems wrong time of year for Beaded and I understand Dotted is very localised so also unlikely - so hoping photos good enough for someone to recognise it! Thanks for your help.

Lime Hawk-moth

To my surprise I found this Lime Hawk-moth on the outside of the trap yesterday morning - a little earlier than normal - whatever normal is these days?

A day or two earlier when I came in from doing some gardening I found this curious caterpillar on my sleeve.  At first I thought it was a twig until it started waving around.  Any idea what species it might be?

Mary Elford
Bampton, Oxon

Micro query from Longwick

Slowly starting to pick up here with my first Ruby Tiger - not a moth I see in Spring much, Swallow prominent and Scorched Carpet. I can't place a micro which is all dark with a speckled appearance. Its wing length is around 7mm. Also pictured is what I believe may be the same Pug species as Richards?  Apologies for the strange angle but it was very flighty! It has a wing span of around 22mm and ignoring the scale damage on the left wing it is quite nondescript and grey with no obvious discal spot - in fact it seems more to have a dark vein on the wing rather than a spot. It also has the white thorax marking. It looks a bit like Mottled Pug without the dark markings!

Interested in views on these.

Rainy night in Cookham

The garden trap had very soggy egg boxes this morning, and only 7 moth occupants, but 3 of them were new for this year's garden list - Muslin Moth, Lunar Marbled Brown and Scalloped Hook-tip. The latter is quite a rare visitor to my garden.

Lunar Marbled Brown - Cookham 17-Apr-20

Scalloped Hook-tip - Cookham 17-Apr-20

Steve Trigg, Cookham

Trap avoidance!

It's been a bit quiet in the trap the last few days. However outside the trap we've had two new moths for the year; Waved Umber & Oak-tree Pug and a second Chocolate tip.
Andrew Cornick, West Oxfordshire SU2685
    

Westcott, Bucks

During Thursday's sunshine I found my first Adela reaumurella long-horn micro of the year dancing above our blackthorn, while that night's moth trap brought in a Pebble Prominent amongst 14 species.  Very little turned up to the trap last night, just five species in all, but one of them was my second Ypsolopha mucronella of the year.  One of just two species from this family which hibernate as adults (the other being Ypsolopha ustella), its larvae feed on spindle of which we have a couple of long-established bushes in the garden.

Pebble Prominent, Westcott 16th April

Ypsolopha mucronella, Westcott 17th April

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

Unknown Noctuid - Lead-coloured Drab perhaps?

Hi Again,

Wondered if someone might be able to help with this. Caught in Botley, Oxford on the 160420. I wondered if it may be a lead-coloured drab, but can;t be sure. Any ideas appreciated. About the same size as a the Common Quaker and Hebrew Characters that are around at the moment.

Richard

Pug problem

Hi,

Wondered if it was possible to get some help with this pug moth. Someone on the pugs in flight Facebook site suggested Golden Rod because of the white mark on the thorax. It was about 20mm across ( a bit less probably). Caught 16/04/20 in Botley Oxford.

Thank you,

Richard

Powdered or pale Common Quaker?

Not quite sure which way to go on this specimen. Any thoughts welcome.

Steve Lockey  (Garsington)

More imperial news

I had only recently been reading the interesting posts here about Emperor moths, when I went to put a spade away in our shed and discovered a furiously fluttering male Emperor. I then remembered that I might have had a few cocoons left over, after distributing lots of others during a breeding saga which began with the arrival of a magnificent female in my MV trap in May 2014.  Sure enough, I found a box with a tangle of old plant debris and, more excitingly, a pristine female sitting on its edge.  I can't resist a go at assembling later today; so maybe Thrupp's imperial story, like Downton Abbey, will go on and on.

Incidentally, my submission to iRecord bore out Dave's interesting recent comment about their problems with moth data. I got an auto-reply noting that I am more than 10km outside the species' known range. Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon

Looper

I don't suppose the tiny 'looper' caterpillar above can be identified, but then you are magicians. The nearest plant was honeysuckle.  Separately, amid modest catches during the cold nights, I had two examples of moth behaviour which interested me.

The first was this Swallow Prominent on a garden wall. From top left, the photos show it at 6.35am (coolish sunrise), 3.30pm (very warm sun), 6.45pm (mild evening sunshine before The Archers) and finally 8.50pm when it was finally gearing up for take-off.

The second was that both the male Muslins in the trap had their antennae out, although otherwise apparently inert.  Most moths in my experience sheath their antennae. I note from the Townsend, Waring & Lewington that the female Muslin behaves idosyncratically, active by day and sometimes found crawling over foliage.  Are the males somehow always on the alert? (Maybe for a nearby daytime female?)