Sadly not C. fibulella, but a Glyphipterix species, almost certainly G. simpliciella. I also saw the familiar Micropterix calthella on the same batch of flowers. I have also been seeing this species regularly on the May flowers in the garden, but yesterday was the first sighting of M. aruncella:
A footnote to yesterday morning's catch: the two female Muslin Moths remained static at the release point overnight, the only change this morning being that they were accompanied by a clutch of 21 eggs.
I shall certainly make an effort to hatch them out and release the offspring somewhere safe.
Well spotted on the Germander Speedwell. Nice to see you've had two female Muslin, stunning moth. My Muslin eggs took 10 days to hatch. By day 9 they turned from the colour of cream pearls to a 'dirty' grey colour. They were hatching at 10.30 am, all 33 of them, and growing well. Will post a photo of the Cream moth to get your opinion on it. Had my very first Spectacle moth to corner light last night 24 May. What a little character, thought it was going to be bigger than it was.
ReplyDeleteI shall use your timings for the Muslin eggs as a guide, Jacqueline. That's assuming that mine are fertile! It will be nice to see the Cream Wave photo, one was posted on Monday on the Ceredigion blog. I haven't had Spectacle yet this year but I would expect to see one or two eventually.
ReplyDeleteGlyphipterix simpliciella seems to be having a bumper year - I've had two in my urban garden (only one previous record in 10 years) and at a woodland in Monmouthshire yesterday there were 100s of them on flowers of Wood Spurge, buttercup, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to see aruncella among the hordes of calthella!
Glad that you seem to have caught the `non-trapping` recording bug Chris - it really does yield results!
ReplyDeleteIt's fine during the day Ian, but come the evening...other things to do, so I rely on the traps.
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