7th July 2017

Back home to Cambridgeshire to continued warm nights and it was rather busy with moths in the garden - just one short of the magic 100 species and so being the most diverse trapping night here to date. There was no big headliner like recent good nights but an excellent thirteen were new for the garden. Oak Nycteoline (of the attractive form ramosana) would have been the highlight but it made its escape without being photographed:

[335] Orchard Ermine
[336] Bucculatrix nigricomella
[337] Agonopterix subpropinquella
[338] Ypsolopha scabrella 
[339] Aethes rubigana
[340] Hedya salicella
[341] Celypha striana
[342] Cydia splendana
[343] Meal Moth
[344] Small Rivulet
[345] Haworth's Pug
[346] Wormwood Pug
[347] Brown-tail
[348] Oak Nycteoline



The Yponomeuta ermines are rather tricky indeed and a lot of what I see do not get assigned to species. However, this individual has a complete grey cast and therefore is a strong candidate for Orchard Ermine:

Orchard Ermine Yponomeuta padella

Contrast this to the plain white (including the cilia) of this Spindle Ermine:

Spindle Ermine Yponomeuta cagnagella

and the common and finer-spotted Bird-cherry Ermine:

Bird-cherry Ermine Yponomeuta evonymella

Bucculatrix nigricomella is a tiny micro and caused me a headache the first (and only) time I've recorded it as its not illustrated in Sterling & Parsons. It is reasonably distinctive however so I recognised it pretty quickly this time:

Bucculatrix nigricomella

The second species of Aethes seen here in the last month was this rubigana - only the second time I've seen it I think:

Aethes rubigana

The three new tortrixes (tortrices?) were all fairly common species but all missing last year

Hedya salicella

Celypha striana

Cydia splendana

Haworth's Pug however is far from common and thank god for the orange abdomen which makes it fairly distinctive for a pug:

Haworth's Pug Eupithecia haworthiata

I flipped with the identification of this pug between Wormwood and Currant before settling on the former - principally due to wing shape and size:

Wormwood Pug Eupithecia absinthiata

Small Rivulet is a moth I've recorded in Cottenham only once before I believe:

Small Rivulet Perizoma alchemillata

New for the year moths included this nice Anania coronata....

Anania coronata

and there were several of the tiny Horse Chestnut Leaf-miners

Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner Cameraria ohridella