Monday 17 August 2015

Pammene spiniana? Dodford

Caught this micro last night at 15w actinic trap in wooded area of my garden.

Forewing length is approx 5mm

It was a bit of a lively specimen hence the photos in the tubes but they do seem to confirm the ID features mentioned in Sterling & Parsons notably the small triangular dorsal blotch with the apex pointing to the costa at about one half as opposed to the similar P.populana with a larger triangular blotch containing blackish brown line and pointing  towards the outer part of the costa.

However I am aware that spiniana is rare in VC37 and I am relatively inexperienced with micros so other views would be welcome.












Pete Smith, Dodford

4 comments:

  1. Hi Pete, looks good to me but as there appears to be just one previous record for VC37 I would hold on to the moth until Tony has commented. Might be worth emailing him direct...

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  2. Hi Pete,
    This does look interesting. Since we only have two prior records for P.spiniana (the most recent of which was from Tony Simpson's garden in 1987!) I think we would need to see the specimen assuming you still have it.
    I have sent you an email...
    Thanks,
    Oliver.

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  3. Thanks Patrick, I do still have the moth and Oliver has contacted me direct to arrange collection, so it will be interesting to see if it actually is spiniana.

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  4. Can you post the result when you know for sure?

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