A Futile Attempt at Micro Moth Id!

Several more macro species that were new for the year were found in the trap on Sunday morning. These included Dun-bar, Bright-line brown-eye and knot grass plus, using the recently discovered id help, I am pretty sure that there were two Rustics among the dozens of Uncertain and one Heart and Club amongst the Heart and Darts.


Knot Grass



Bright-line brown-eye (lovely name for a pretty moth)



Faded Dun-bar



I then turned my attention to the micro's - about half way through I almost wished I hadn't bothered as they are even worse to id than the dreaded noctuid lbj's!

All my moth picture are substantially cropped but some of the micro photos below are really heavily cropped as the moths are so tiny so some of the pictures leave a lot to be desired!

Phlyctaenia coronata? This would be new for garden (in fact nearly every micro would be NFG!) When I potted it it was showing its hindwings but it didn't want to do so for the photo.



Garden grass-veneer?



The moth below looked pretty distinctive until I checked the Manley book and found several very similar species! Hampshire's "What's Flying Tonight" (a very useful website even though I live in a different county) suggests it is possibly a Bird Cherry Ermine (I can make out (just) five rows of black dots.



Dipleurina lacustrata?



By now I was getting even more into the realm of guesswork - Agriphila straminella?



This moth looked very like the Spilonota ocellana on the Hampshire site but nothing like the photo in the Manley book





Unless a micro is really distinctive I think I will stick in future to identifying macro's for now!!!!

Summary of Moths Trapped Saturday, 2nd July

10.00 p.m. until dawn Minimum temperature - 12.4 degrees centigrade

15w Actinic Skinner Trap

Light Emerald x 2
Uncertain x 43
Rustic x 2 New for Year
Riband Wave x 4
Heart and Dart x 21
Dun-bar x 1
Scalloped Oak x 2
Dark Arches x 4
Bright-line brown-eye x 1 New for Year
Heart and Club x 1 New for Garden
Knot Grass x 1 New for Year

Micros

Bee Moth x 2
Phlyctaenia coronata? x 1 New for Garden
Garden grass-veneer x 2
Dipleurina lacustrata? x 2
Bird Cherry Ermine? x 1 New for Garden

I have only tentatively included some of the micros I attempted to id.

As always please feel free to leave a comment and correct any howling errors (there must be a lot in this particular post!).