November or Autumnal Moth?

A short interlude from the holiday in Wales and back to Moths.

I ran the trap last Saturday night, 22nd October.

There were only four moths to be found on Sunday morning (minimum overnight temperature was 8.8 degrees centigrade).

One moth was a Blair's Shoulder Knot and the other 3 were all very similar - I really must improve my potting technique as two of the three managed to escape before I could pot them leaving just the moth in the photo below which was fairly worn with a wingspan of about 20 mm.




I think it is a November or Autumnal moth although according to the excellent Hants - Flying Tonight website there are four species of Epirrita in the UK and its difficult to tell them apart. As its so worn its difficult to see if the central spot is within or separate from the outer central cross band (or it is for me!). It would appear that genitalia dissection is the best way to separate the species. So I think it may well remain unidentified!

I'll be running the moth trap for a few more weeks just until the Garden Moth Scheme ends and then I will probably put it away for the winter unless we have a really mild spell.