23rd July 2019

The start of a small heatwave coincided with a dramatic overnight thunderstorm. So while diversity wasn't as remarkable as this time last week, the rain didn't stop some interesting moths arriving.

The headliners were two pyralids - firstly the stunning Oncocera semirubella, one of those species that jumps out at you in the field guide and a really good species to record here.

Oncocera semirubella

The second pyralid was considerably more cryptic and also somewhat worn. The only match is Pempelia genistella a predominantly coastal species with records seemingly mostly from Suffolk and Essex in the region. Not sure if there's been many (or any) VC29 records.

Pempelia genistella

I had almost ignored a plain gelechiid but the photos show it to be a match for Acompsia cinerella:

Acompsia cinerella

Another scarce species locally, Phtheochroa inopiana, was the next one added to the garden list:

Phtheochroa inopiana

The final new one involved two tortrix individuals in the Dichrorampha genus - they are quite different to each other but both look likely to involve D.vancouverana:

Dichrorampha vancourverana

There were plenty of other good moths which included the second garden record of Eucosma campolinana. I failed to photograph the first one so its a shame that this years had seen better days:

Eucosma campoliliana

[532] Acompsia cinerella
[533] Oncocera semirubella
[534] Pempelia genistella
[535] Phtheochroa inopiana
[536] Dichrorampha vancouverana