As well as the moths I’m never likely to get close to giving an ID (see previous post) a number of the moths that have come to the bathroom after dusk over the past two days are one’s I’m not certain I’ve ID’d correctly. For starters there’s this large moth which has been every evening this week and which is rather boistrous. I think it is the Broom Moth – it is certainly a moth I’ve not recorded in previous years, and appears to be about in relatively large numbers at the moment. A bathroom full is rather daunting.
Broom Moth (melanchra pisi)?
And this moth, too, has been about on most days over the past week. I believe it is either the Apple Ermine or the Bird-cherry Emine.
Apple (or Bird-cherry) Ermine ?
Then there’s those wretched pugs … all small and generally dark and usually lurking somewhere difficult to get at. I’m leaning towards this one being the Tawny Pug:
Tawny-speckled Pug (eupithecia icterata)?
Finally, among this group there is this moth which is either the Common Rustic or Lesser Common Rustic – two moth species so nearly indistinguishable one from the other that a dissection would be necessary to decide one way or another. I left this one to fly another day.
Common or Lesser Common Rustic
