Saturday, 28 February 2015

Agonopterix heracliana or ciliella ?

Tried the moth trap last night - dry, light wind and a min temperature of 6C - but only two moths. A very nice Hebrew Character and an Agopterix sp. I have this problem every year - is this A. heracliana or A. ciliella ? I have attached a photo taken through the specimen pot of the underside but I'm still not sure about the lines on the cilia ...




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8 comments:

  1. Bennyboymothman28 February 2015 at 18:33

    Hi Howard.
    You need to look at the lines in the cilia of the hindwing under a hand lens for the answer as it is very hard to see from a photo.

    All the best
    Ben

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  2. Howard Burt28 February 2015 at 22:01

    Hi Ben
    I did that and saw pretty much what the photo shows - a broad basal line and two fainter ones. I'm looking at the underside - does this matter?

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  3. GMT2 March 2015 at 10:01

    Howard, see this previous blog post from Dave on the subject:

    http://gmrg-vc41moths.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/agonopterix-ciliella.html

    As yours has 2-3 obvious bands in the cilia I'd say it's ciliella. All the ones I've checked have only had one obvious band so I've recorded them as heracliana.

    George

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  4. VC41Moths2 March 2015 at 11:44

    Yes, this character may not be as reliable as I had thought. I think I'm going to dissect a few this year to check, so yours may need to go down as heracliana/ciliella. That said, I don't think SEWBReCORD accepts that as a name so you may need to enter it as Agonopterix and put heracliana/ciliella in the comments.

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  5. Ian Morgan2 March 2015 at 12:19

    I`ve been watching this particular post with interest, as I also had one that was one of these two species on the 26th Feb. Mine had only one band, so I recorded it as heracliana, but I note Dave`s comments. Another Agonopterix resting on a wall yesterday was the easier ocellana!

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    Replies
    1. VC41Moths2 March 2015 at 12:22

      If it only has one band then it is heracliana - it's when there are more bands that the uncertainty comes in!

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  6. GMT2 March 2015 at 14:38

    I used to check the bands on the upperside of the hindwing - perhaps this is more reliable? The downside, of course, is that to see the hindwing upperside the moth usually has to be killed (unless it can be sedated).

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  7. Howard Burt2 March 2015 at 23:03

    Thanks to all for your comments and advice. For now, if there is a single basal line I will log as A. heracliana and if there are five clear lines I will log as A. ciliella. Anything in between will go down as A. heracliana/ciliella

    ReplyDelete

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