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.
Catoptria margaritella looks good to me. I get them occasionally here and in fact, had one at Pwll Waun Cynon on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteAs 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.
I've had margaritella here in Cardiff a couple of times, so they evidently wander.
ReplyDeleteThe dark one looks like a very dark Common Marbled Carpet.
Like Mark, I'm not sure about the pyralid!
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!
ReplyDeleteFor 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?
ReplyDeleteAs 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.
Jake was right about the melanic Geometer - a July Highflyer confirmed by critical examination.
ReplyDelete