Thursday 22 March 2018

Creigiau 20 March

A mild evening so put the box out for an hour  - sky cleared at approx 20:30 and the temperature plummeted from 6C to just above freezing so I closed it down. Had 11 moths of 8 species so worth the effort ... the usual suspects including another Agonopterix heracliana/ciliella.

I'm sure I can see more than one line in the cilia on the hind wing. I also thought this for the one in the GMS box on Friday but they appear to be a bit clearer in these images .... maybe. Are they clear enough for me to say that this is A. ciliella ? (all images taken through the sides of a plastic petri dish)




3 comments:

  1. Hi Howard, I wouldn't be confident calling this one i'm afraid.
    Dave

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  2. For further refernce, this image is on the German 'Lepiforum' site: http://www.lepiforum.de/webbbs/images/forum_2/pic70389.jpg
    Images on the the left are ciliella, on the right are heracliana, so more than one line does not automatically rule out heracliana. Ideally you need to see the cilia at the base of the hindwing - which is not possible without spreading the wings a bit more than most live moths will allow!

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  3. Thanks Dave. Nothing ventured ..... never know, one day one may decide sit in my petri dish with wings open and legs out of the way.
    I'm practising this technique for getting images of the genital areas on caddisflies - seems to be working reasonably well so far but still needs Ian Wallace to do the ID.

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