Literate herring, this way.: Yorkshire Moths.

Tuesday 26 September 2023

Yorkshire Moths.

We went to Yorkshire for a week. I took two Heath traps with me and trapped in the two gardens that I used in October 2021. The first night the garden in the village did well with NFM Shuttle-shaped Dart and Light Brown Apple Moth, which I don't think I've seen previously. Brown-spot Pinion were in both gardens and also new I think. Earlier in the day a leaf mine in a cherry (Prunus), in the garden up the hill, was from a Stigmella species I thought, feasibly, S.oxyacanthella. And a small brown job eventually turned out to be Beaded Chestnut. So a good do!

Beaded Chestnut.

Brown-spot Pinion

Cherry leaf, upper.

Cherry leaf, under, mine ~~maybe~~ from ~~Stigmella oxyacanthella~~, re-identified, thanks CC, as Lyonetia clerkella.

Light Brown Apple Moth, Epiphyas postvittana.

Shuttle-shaped Dart.

Other species seen or captured included: (up the hill) Red Admiral, Nettle-tap, Silver Y, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Blastobasis adustella, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Dark Arches, Large Wainscot and Common Marbled Carpet; (in the village) Green-brindled Crescent, Yellow-line Quaker, Red-green Carpet, Autumnal Rustic, Diamond-backed Moth, Common Wainscot, Blastobasis lacticolella, LYU, DA.

Common Wainscot - upperside of hind wing examined and was pale.

Brindled Green Crescent.

(Red-green Carpet) or maybe Autumn Green Carpet - thanks SS. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the hind underwing. I did photograph Red-green Carpet on another date, to be added.

Silver Y

Yellow-line Quaker.

The next night it rained a lot, late on. I brought the moor side trap in very early, and the village trap a few hours later. The moor side trap produced a very nice Least Yellow Underwing, Noctua interjecta. I took a specimen of this as the ID required good views of the upper side of the hind wing.

Female genitalia

Wings, uppers, fore (top), hind (below). The hind wing confirms the ID. Fore wing length14.4mm.

Pretty chuffed with this, a decent record and NFM.

However, more good stuff to come as when I brought the village Heath in there were some moths in the mouth of the trap and on the wall, nearby.

Canary-shouldered Thorn, male, very nice, it was in the mouth of the trap.

And, there were three Copper Underwing agg on the nearby wall. One escaped but I captured two rather worn ones. A bit of a tricky determination these, especially as I'd not seen one before. I took the specimens and brought them back home for some dissection.

Head to show labial palps, which were pale below.

I broke the aedegus whilst opening it and the top lot of spine-like cornuti should actually be under the lower set, anyway, there are just 11 or so of them and not 30 so that makes this moth A. pyramidea, Copper Underwing

Male genitalia with the aedegus in place.

The uncus is the top bit that is hanging down, this is a lateral view.

So this all adds up to this one being Amphipyra pyramidea, Copper Underwing, as opposed to A. berbera, Svensson's Copper Underwing. Again, good result.

The second moth was a female, on this one the wing colour was a bit more helpful, handy as I wasn't gentle enough with the genitalia dissection and distorted the crucial bits.

Fore wing.

Copper Underwing.

Also in the trap A Yellow-line Quaker, two LYUs and a Common Marbled Carpet.

I didn't trap the following night but on the night of the 20th the moor side trap produced, Red-green Carpet, Yellow-lined Quaker, 3; a Canary-shouldered Thorn, Spruce Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, and a Feathered Thorn, plus another Copper Underwing, another male.