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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
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4 comments:

  1. Patrick Clement17 August 2015 at 16:05

    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...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oliver Wadsworth17 August 2015 at 16:10

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pete Smith17 August 2015 at 17:16

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peter Hall17 August 2015 at 18:19

    Can you post the result when you know for sure?

    ReplyDelete

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