Wednesday 2 April 2014

Saving the best until last

I've always considered Blossom Underwing to be the nicest of the Orthosias and it is usually the last to appear.  Like one or two other moths it actually looks prettier at night, when viewed under the harsh MV light, than it does in the daytime!  Three appeared at my Skinner MV yesterday evening, which was run in Bernwood Forest, Bucks.  There was little else of note, though, apart from the first Early Tooth-striped of the year and another example of Pammene giganteana.  The latter is restricted to oak woodland and its larvae feed inside wasp galls.  It doesn't look particularly stunning but it is still a nice catch, its early flight season meaning that it is probably under-recorded.  Back home at Westcott the overnight catch was notable only for two new-for-year micros, Caloptilia stigmatella and Epermenia chaerophyllellaDave Wilton

Blossom Underwing at Bernwood Forest, 1st April

Early Tooth-striped at Bernwood Forest, 1st April

Pammene giganteana at Bernwood Forest, 1st April

Epermenia chaerophyllella at Westcott, 1st April

2 comments:

  1. Epermenia chaerophyllella hasn't got that many Bucks records. I've just added one from last year (from the chop pot) and I've just id'd one from Ceredigion that they found last week too.

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  2. I've just added a picture of it. Thought it was going to be a Mompha sp until it sat up straight! I've had it a couple of times previously in the garden and I seem to remember finding it in the Marsh Gibbon RIS trap too.

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