Sunday 8 June 2014

Two for ID / Confirmations please

After yesterday's bonanza, slimmer pickings today although the Large Yellow Underwings are starting to show up. Two not very good photos I'm afraid, the first I'm thinking is a Mottled Beauty on the basis of the scalloped hindwing, the other I think might be an Oegoconia, the patterning looks right but I'm not sure about the posture. The length (rather than wingspan) was about 2 mm.

Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford



3 comments:

  1. If you find and follow the two central dark lines Mark, they start wide apart at the costa then gradually come together and finally run parallel until it reaches the dorsum. This happens in the Pale Oak Beauty, Great Oak Beauty and also Willow Beauty, but not Mottled Beauty. So yours is a Willow Beauty.

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  2. At 'about 2mm' your insect is not going to be an Oegoconia, Mark, and I would even question whether it is a moth at all. There are some very confusing and common members of the Hydroptilidae (micro caddis-flies) with forewings of between 2.5 and 3mm.

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