29th July 2020 - 600 not out

A busy night dominated by interesting micro moths, three of which were new for both me and the garden. This included what is the 600th species for the garden - a very satisfying milestone to reach and one that never seemed particularly likely. The last three years have however been exceptional  with higher than average new moths appearing including some nice rarities. 

[599] Phyllonorycter harrisella

[600] Phyllocnistis xenia

[601] Cochylis dubitana

2020 has been amazingly productive for Phyllonorycter species here, and this (one of three) P. harrisella was the fourth one so far and is one of the more readily identified of the genus:

Phylloncorycter harrisella

Moth number 600 was another similar leaf mining moth, this time of the genus Phyllocnistis. I haven't previously seen any of the species in this group so I had to take some time to work it out - they are all white with a black terminal dot. These are seriously small species though (c6mm) and really hard to get a good photograph of. 

On the basis on yellow colouration between the striae, no shading halfway along the wing and a lack of a dark longitudinal line this matches P. xenia. This species has the vernacular name of Kent Bent-wing after its discovery in Kent in 1974. 

Phyllocnistis xenia

The final new species was something I've been on the look out for for a while, the tortricid Cochylis dubitana.  The diagnostic white head was very obvious when I came across it in the trap.

Cochylis dubitana

To complete the perfect storm of nightmareish tiny leaf mining species to struggle to work out was a Bucculatrix species. After flip flopping across four different species its best to park this one as being unidentified. It looks to be either frangutella or bechsteinella both of which I have recorded on single occasions before.

Bucculatrix sp.