Sunday 8 June 2014

Should have been better

OK, so it was about 44 species and over 100 individuals, but I had the impression the night 6th-7th June should have been better here in Wolvercote, Oxon - it was very warm, cloudy, windless - but still a slight sense that we should have had a few more. Notwithstanding, a few new species for the year came up - our first Green Pug and Riband Wave, for instance, and a few debatable individuals shown below: what may possibly be a Denisia albimaculea, though the photo is poor (it was very small: maybe 4mm long?); a couple of individuals I think are Common Carpet, but which look a little out in terms of colour; one I tentatively suspect is a Lychnis (the two stigmata seem more or less separate, the outermost cross-line looks right); a presumed Scoparia ambigualis; and a micro from the 5th which I can't ID at all. As ever, all suggestions gratefully received. Steve and Xander Goddard.

Possible Denisia albimaculea, 6/6/14

Possible Common Carpet, 6/6/14

Another possible Common Carpet, 6/6/14

Presumed Lychnis, 6/6/14

Possible Scoparia ambigualis, 6/6/14

Completely unknown micro, 5/6/14

4 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,

    Your Common Carpets are Small Seraphims I would say. BW, Marc

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  2. Well Steve the two stigmata are clearly separate, so what does that make it? Lychnis or Campion? I hope you have been reading my comments. Your tiny micro is definitely not Denisia albimaculea but it's not clear enough to my eyes to id. Your Scoparid is indeed ambigualis and the final one is a Cnephasia and needs chopping.

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  3. I'm afraid that simply ploughing through the micro field guide and looking for a match won't work with the smallest micro-moths, most of which aren't illustrated in it. You can tell from the white eye-caps that the first picture shows a Nepticulid and I think it is probably Ectoedemia decentella but it would be unsafe to record it as such based just on that picture. The final one looks to me like a Cnephasia species but, again, if it had been photographed out of the shade of the egg carton we might have a better idea of what it really looked like!

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  4. Thanks, all! - Marc, Small Seraphim looks very convincing and is good news as it's a garden first. Peter - Lychnis it is, then! :-) And the same individual, or a very similar, showed up in the trap last night, too. We didn't get a Campion last year at all, so will have to look out for that. And on the micros, point taken: with the Cnephasia, I think I half-suspected it would be an ID problem, so wasn't that assiduous in photoing it; but will be doing what I can to dispense with eggbox shots from here on in.

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