Moth results

It's that time of year when last year's moth total gets some clarification, and hopefully a boost. Nigel Stone, the Warwickshire Moth Recorder, had taken away a small box of moths, ten in all, where identification proved difficult. He has emailed me the results and I found that my garden list had expanded by four.

The best one was the fourth Warwickshire record of Crassa tinctella a micro also known as Plain Bark Moth. In this case I had correctly identified it, and had sent Nigel a photo which he confirmed did look like one. However he said that he would need the specimen as only three out of a thousand he had previously checked had turned out to be this species.

Crassa tinctella 17/05/2024

Only three of the ten moths were macros; an Oak-tree Pug (which had died anyway so I thought I might as well get it checked), a Scarce Footman (which had looked very pale, and the Obsidentify App assured me was the very rare Hoary Footman. I had it checked because I didn't trust the App, rightly as it turned out), and a very worn Pug which had me and the app completely stumped. It turned out to be a new moth for the garden White-spotted Pug. The books imply this is a common moth, but in fact it has declined rapidly in recent years and is now listed as "near-threatened".

White-spotted Pug Eupithecia tripunctaria 29/08/2024

The remaining two new for the garden were both micros. The first was extremely worn, to the extent that neither I nor the app even got the right family. It turned out to be Blushed Knot-horn Ephestia woodiella. 

An extremely worn Ephestia woodiella 12/06/2024

The last new one was a species I was fairly sure I had been seeing before. The tiny Yponomeuta moths occur in large numbers and there are five common species. Only one is easy to identify, two are utterly impossible, and the other two may be identified by true experts, i.e. not me. So when on July 18 2024 a large catch of moths included two I was pretty sure were my missing species Willow Ermine Yponomeuta rorrella, I decided to have one of them checked, and it was indeed that species.

Willow Ermine Yponomeuta rorrella 18/07/2024

As I've no doubt said before, taking specimens goes against the grain, but moth identification is quite different from bird identification and sometimes if you want to know what they are for certain, there is no alternative.