Garden moth update

With the week due to be largely wet, I decided to put my trap out last night. It remains rather cool and as a result the morning saw a fairly modest, for July, catch of 57 moths of 21 species.

Only one of these was new for the year, an Early Thorn, a second generation emergence.

Early Thorn

Actually most of my morning was taken up trying to understand why two grass moths were so different from one another in size. This led me to the incorrect conclusion that the smaller one might be Crambus uliginosellus. I sent a tweet. Steve Whitehouse then replied with a text. What I didn't know was that this species is not local, as the books say, but is very scarce or possibly extinct on Hartlebury Common where he had looked for them. He pointed out that the white streak did not appear to go 2/3 way along the costal edge. This meant it was just a very small example of the common Crambus pascuella.

Crambus pascuella (confirmed by gen det)

Oh well, you live and learn. Thanks to Steve Whitehouse for the prompt guidance.

The full list was:

Bird-cherry Ermine 3, Brown House Moth 1, Ruddy Streak 2, Twenty-plume Moth 1, Lozotaeniodes formosana 1, Codling Moth 2, Eudonia lacustrata 1, Garden Grass Veneer 6, Crambus pascuella 6, Single-dotted Wave 1, Early Thorn 1 (nfy), Peppered Moth 1, Common Footman 13, Scarce Footman 1, Uncertain 3, Dark Arches 3, Marbled Minor ag 1, Smoky Wainscot 1, Heart and Dart 6, Shuttle-shaped Dart 1, Large Yellow Underwing 2

There's a twist. @UKmothID replied to my tweet saying it "does look very good for C uliginosellus, yes". I emailed the photos to the County Recorder and he has stated that it needs to be retained in case it is just that. It would be a first for Warwickshire if correct. 

I'll keep you posted.

And the answer is: female Crambus pascuella. Oh well.