Sunday, 8 December 2013

Northern Winter Moth?

This came to my kitchen window, this evening. At first I thought it was Winter Moth, then having looked at the photos wondered whether it might be Northern Winter Moth. In texture, the wings were certainly silky and rather glossy. I think it might be NWT, in which case it will be a first for me, but I'd be just as happy to be told it was a plain old Winter Moth after all.


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7 comments:

  1. GMT8 December 2013 at 22:47

    Tricky to tell from a photo - the hindwing looks pale enough but maybe that's just the exposure on the camera because of the dark background? Was it larger than your average Winter Moth?

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    1. Mark Evans9 December 2013 at 05:49

      Difficult to say because I see so few of them that I'm really unfamiliar with them. The hindwing actually looked that pale under torchlight too.

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  2. GMT9 December 2013 at 08:10

    I left an actinic trap at Forest Farm/Glamorgan Canal for a few hours last night and caught 23 Winter Moths, the wood was thick with them in the torchlight. They were all much darker than your photo, so perhaps yours is NWM? I haven't seen this species for years though, so I hope someone else can add more expert opinion!

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  3. VC41Moths9 December 2013 at 09:08

    I'd say Northern. The one i had in 2011 was distinctly pale and glossy:
    http://gmrg-vc41moths.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/more-winter-moths.html

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  4. Mark Evans9 December 2013 at 20:29

    Thank you, gentlemen. I'll record it as Northern.
    I see what I presume are Winter Moths flying about, when I'm driving, but usually manage less than a handful to my traps and garden each year. My best winter by far was that of 2001-2002, when I had a total of 11 and since I started trapping in 1998, I've had just 39 of them. I wonder how many of those were overlooked Northerns?

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  5. Chris Handoll10 December 2013 at 19:42

    Interesting - we've had the same discussion on the Carms. site recently because I've had two of these pale brown Winter Moths with white hindwings and have put them down as NWM, which is not well-recorded hereabouts. Photos of them were posted.

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  6. Mark Evans11 December 2013 at 19:46

    I'll certainly check more closely in future, though they obviously aren't as straightforward as one might hope. The problem with the published descriptions it they rely too much on comparisons with the Winter Moth, which is fine unless like me, you don't get many each year. This was my first WM/NWM of this winter, so I really couldn't say whether or not it was larger, paler, browner, etc than a WM.

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