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Saturday, 14 May 2016

More Grey Micros, and others

On Wednesday night my MV trap (in the greenhouse, sheltered from the rain) attracted several very small grey moths which appear to be the same as the one I reported last weekend, which was tentatively identified as an Elachista sp, probably E.canapennella (thank you George and Sam).  My attempts to photograph these tiny moths, FW 4-5mm, continue to be only partially successful:


Incidentally, I have only found these moths in the MV trap, they don't seem to be attracted to the actinic lamps, unlike another micro trapped on Wednesday night, Dyseriocrania subpurpurella, which also turned up in a small actinic trap used on Thursday night:


This is also true of Semioscopis steinkellneriana, which visits traps of both kinds, but doesn't venture inside them.  This species seems to be having a bumper year around here, I have recorded one or two on each occasion I have trapped during the last couple of weeks:


Pugs have started to arrive in numbers and continue to consume hours of deliberation.  Most of them have been light brown jobs, fairly lightly marked, of which the above is a fairly typical example.  The size, shape and marking of these suggest to me that they are Brindled Pugs.  Another from Wednesday night is clearly different, smaller and more strongly marked, possibly an Oak-tree Pug?


Finally, two which are different again and seem likely to be Common Pugs.  However, I have noted that the forewings are of different shapes - the first is more rounded - so I may have to think again; perhaps someone would kindly advise.



3 comments:

  1. You`ve caught Semioscopis, which I`ve never caught, ditto with the Dyseriocrana, though I`ve had (this year) the E. canapennella. In my experience too, the catches in MV v actinic can differ, so worth putting out both traps (spaced away from each other) if you can.
    No one likes trying to det pugs with photos, but your photos are good and clear. With my usual cowardly caveat `I may be wrong` when it comes to pugs, number 1 looks like oak tree pug to me too and no 2 common pug, but I see your point re pointy wings with no 3. Well done to both you and Steve for trapping - I gave it a miss last night (tiredness and weather) and yesterday pm`s daytime mothing was a flop...I could n`t find anything!..well except for one Rubus mine (to be checked). Two dingy skippers were compensation.

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  2. I agree with all your pug IDs Chris. Amazing to get so many steinkellneriana!

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  3. Thank you Ian & George, it's nice to get one or two Pugs right! Regarding steinkellneriana and it's regular occurrence here, why is it that certain species are not as widespread as the abundance of their foodplants suggest that they should be?

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