Wednesday 11 October 2017

19th September- late post

Highmoor Hill- yet another new micro for V35.


I've been meaning to put this post up for some time, so here it is.
It was a reasonably rewarding evening trap at Highmoor Hill with 37 moths of 18 species turning up, mostly with a common status tag.
A couple of micro's were localised however.
One of them especially, looked decidedly battered and faded under the actinic light and I paused to think about it.
A few more moments passed before I collected it anyway put it in a pot and set it to one side until I decided to pack up later.

Upon packing up I went through what had turned up and again came to this battered faded moth in upright posture a type of Gracillariidae.
I placed a torchlight across it and then began to see markings and colours along its flank. I then realised that it wasn't in bad condition at all, quite the opposite.

Caloptilia populetorum (Clouded Slender)

The next day's photoshoot saw this moth in completely different light. It took me a while to decide on which species it was whilst looking at my moth book and indeed online but I felt I could assign the moth's name under Caloptila populetorum before sending it off to Sam to have a look at. I was pleased, for it was another potentially new moth for me and as is often the case I'm unaware of the county status of many moths.
Sam returned my mail to report it as indeed Caloptilia populetorum to my surprise and yet another new micro for the Vice County.
The list is growing for micro's in V35 and in a recent correspondence Sam informs me that the past two years have been very productive "outstanding years". As years progress additions now to the vice county list are much harder to find.


The moth prefers Birch which is reasonable widespread in the county so why have we not seen it before?
I can think of three things why maybe this moth hadn't been seen...
  • It may have just been ignored because not too many people record micro's in the county
  • Moth trappers (me temporarily included) felt that it was poorly marked and did not consider it further investigation
  • It may be reluctant to come to light/ only receptive to certain light spectrums 

 

1 comment:

  1. This is a really nice find, Nick - I've never seen this species and I'm not sure that many micro-moth'ers would ignore it. I reckon it is genuinely scarce in Gwent. Well done!

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