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Monday 30 June 2014

Rhoose queries

Am I right in thinking that this is Catoptria margaritella?  Possibly a wanderer as the micro book describes its habitat as boggy heaths, mosses and moors, which doesn't sound like Rhoose Point to me...!

Puzzled by this one - I'm assuming it's a melanic form of a geometrid, unless I've missed something!
I first thought this might be Acrobasis advenella, which I have recorded here before.  The inner pale cross-line doesn't look quite right to me though.  Possibly A marmorea?  It's also lacking the paired black dots at two thirds.


5 comments:

  1. Catoptria margaritella looks good to me. I get them occasionally here and in fact, had one at Pwll Waun Cynon on Saturday.
    As for the Acrobasis, I wouldn't like to say anything except (and I know I'm going to be wrong here) that the Cacao Moth (Ephestia elutella) illustrated badly in Goater (plate 8, figure 29) bears a certain resemblance to it.

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  2. I've had margaritella here in Cardiff a couple of times, so they evidently wander.

    The dark one looks like a very dark Common Marbled Carpet.

    Like Mark, I'm not sure about the pyralid!

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  3. I think you may be right in looking at the Ephestia group Mark. It looks a better fit visually, but I just remembered I found a long-forgotten bag of bird food in the back of the garage recently which was home to lots of wriggly things. Quite possibly Pyralid larvae!

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  4. For Common/Dark Marb. Carpets, look at the underside: more pointed = citrata [DMC], more rounded = truncata [CMC]. Have you checked the melanic form of July Highflyer?
    As for Cacao Moth, usually this species is a lot paler and blander in colouration than E. parasitella [False Cacao Moth], which tends to be more a warmer rufous colour. However to be absolutely sure, I would suggest DJS have a look at it. I get both here in my Cardiff garden, Cacao Moth being the more commoner.

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  5. Jake was right about the melanic Geometer - a July Highflyer confirmed by critical examination.

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