Coun't 'em - one... two...

23-24 Apr 2013 | 25W Blacklight | @ home garden HVC39 J3074
11°C, Beaufort 1-3  

Thrilled to find not just one but three moths in the trap after a wet but mild night - all new for the year!

Diurnea fagella: 1 male [Y] [GY]
Double-striped Pug: 1 [Y] [GY]
Caloptilia stigmetella: 1 [Y] [n] [GY] [GN]

Caloptilia stigmatella (White-triangle Slender)

Caloptilia stigmatella bears the relatively unoffensive vernacular name "White-triangle Slender" in Jim Porter's 2002 paper. You'll hear a lot of micro-moffers grumbling about that piece of work (in which all British micro-moths which previously had no common names were landed with names with all of the character of Crayola crayon colours). I'm currently trying to get to the bottom of Whodunnit, so if anyone reading this is any the wiser on that subject I'd love to hear from you! Rant over.

C. stigmatella is one I recorded as a larva last year (in a leaf fold on sallow) but not as an adult and not in the garden, which means it's number 118 on the garden list!

(By the way... Caloptilias are one of many moth groups which can be difficult to identify. Please don't hesitate to correct me if youthink I've got an ID wrong on this blog - I don't mind!)

With temperatures still up at 11°C by morning, the two micros were a bit jumpy. I immediately went in to photograph the Caloptilia and I'm thanking Heaven I managed to get the above photo of it before it lifted off and disappeared into thin air! First lesson of the year learned - I immediately potted the Diurnea to photograph later.

And when I have photographed the other two, I'll update this post.

[Update:]

Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata)

Male Diurnea fagella (March Tubic)

Diurnea fagella

Diurnea fagella, close-up