In brief (ho) part 2 (x/y)

In the preceding post I dispensed with the more commonplace and familiar among last night’s visitors. The rest of the motley collection are a vexacious offering – for the most part unnamed. But at least the dreary prose will be leavened with the odd photograph or three.

Before we get to the illustrated part I must mention the Pug. These are small moths and a constant source of frustration. They lurk in high corners often in poor light and they are small. Even when they do hang about until daylight they are not often easy to differentiate. The Pug that was in last night was perhaps this, or perhaps that. The photographs are not a great help except in eliminating a number of the more extravagently marked species of pug. So it remain The Pug.

There were two very small moths and after expending further time this evening attempting to ID or at least even form an idea of which families they belong in I’ve given up. The photographs will not be any assistance, but here, for what it is worth are the next two moths:

On the other hand there was a very familiar figure making a return for the first time this year; vast and vividly orange then strangely subdued once it had settled into its resting position this is the Large Yellow Underwing (noctua pronuba). This is a species that came to the bathroom quite frequently in 2007 but was notably absent last year.

Large Yellow Underwing (noctua pronuba)

With a wing span of around 55mm it is far larger than most of the moths that come to the bathroom. If it is about this year then it could become a frequent visitor between now and October which is its flying season. The larva feed on a wide variety of herbaceous plants.

Having realised that I’ve omitted to mention yet another of the moths that I cannot name and couldn’t photograh I’m left with the final three.

The first is a smallish and very unremarkable moth in that it conforms to the stereotype of being heavy bodies and dingy and furry. That said it is actually quite distinctive in its very unremarkableness (sorry). There have been two of these moths in the house already this year, this photograph taken last night is possibly the best I’ve managed in terms of capturing what defininition of marking it has:

It is about two thirds the size of a Bright-line Brown-eye or slightly larger and the wings have a blunter shape to them.

The last two I have tentatively identified. The first is the kamikaze character that has been bombarding the closed window. It is big, approaching the size of the Large Yellow Underwing but seems bigger because it is quite frenetic around light. Last night there were half a dozen in the room at one point and it was almost too much. My hesitation in naming comes because the ones I’ve had visit have all rested so that some part of the underwing is clearly visible, with wings somewhat spread out, which is not a pose the Broom Moth (melanchra pisi) is normally shown in.

Broom Moth (melanchra pisi)?

Broom moth (melanchra pisi)?

And yes, the last (just before I head up to have a look at what tonight has brought) is I think a Marbled White Spot (protodeltote pygarga). I simply cannot find anything, anywhere that has the same shaped pale patch across the wings.

Marbled White Spot (protodeltote pygarga)?

What a relief. For the record I found my first Garden Carpet moth outside (as opposed to indoors) resting on the trunk of one of the green gage trees. And also for the record the olives are recalcitrant. We had a downpour here today and I haven’t been outside in the garden since. Those buds have to open one day.

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In brief (ho, ho) part 1 (10/18)

The number of Garden Grass-veneer (chrysoteuchia culmella) coming into the house at the moment is staggering considering I saw not a single one last year. Their official flight period is June-July so this may continue for some time. There must have been a dozen, though I wasn’t keeping careful count, and all over the house.

Back last night was the Common Emerald (hemithea aestivaria) which only made its first appearance of the year on the previous night. That too is on the wing in June and July. Whereas chrysoteuchia culmella is a classed as a pyralid and therefore sits among the micro moths hemithea aestivaria is classed as a member of the geometridae family and therefore among the maco moths. Its larva feed on various things including hawthorn and blackthorn which are abundant in the vicinity.

Also making a second appearance in two days, and these the first for the year, was the Apple Ermine (yponomeuta malinellus) – though this ID is uncertain as it is not easy to distinguish from a Bird-cherry Ermine (y. evonymella).

The Bright-line Brown-eye (laconobia oleracea)  and Brown House Moth (hofmannophilia pseudospretella : big name, small moth) are effectively ubiquitous and hardly rate a mention.

A plume moth pair were loitering on the landing and I’m fairly sure they were emmelina monodactyla which is common and a frequent visitor.

A solitary phylctaenia coronata, a species that has been in the house a number of times already this season, came in and remained overnight.

After that came the wave of other moths, including in no particular order the Small Dusty Wave (idaea seriata), the Plain Wave (idaea straminata) and Riband Wave (idaea aversata). The Plain Wave hasn’t been in previously this year and is described as scarce. It is one of the reasons it has taken me two hours just to get this far. Cheers. The last of these three, the Riband Wave, was present in both forms, just to add to the fun of it all.

That’s taken me past the half way point and I really need to get some work done. I shall come back to this later in the evening and I’m almost hoping for a slow night tonight so that I can be caught up by tomorrow.

The lack of photographs of the above is down to a combination of boredom and a malign conjunction of the stars meaning that the photographs I did take of these above named species are generally dreadful.

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