Coincidence or what?

Decided to run the trap for 2 nights running as the forecast seemed to indicate a good night. This is something I try to avoid in order to let the previous nights catch get as far away as they want. I did wait as long as possible before switching on though.

There were only 36 moths in the trap but yet again there was a new moth for the site.
But what has this got to do with the title? I will explain: - yesterday I noted that we have a new "follower" for the blog - welcome Sam - and so I looked at his blog this morning and he has recorded the same moth - and he is not just down the road. OK, not much of a coincidence, except that on his blog yesterday I saw he has a photo of a small larva found on Ivy, and seeing that, I went into my garden and looked at the Ivy growing round the telegraph pole - and indeed I too found larva there. Now is this a coincidence?

Without more ado, here is the proof.


Caloptilia stigmatella



Lozotaenia forsterana

I looked in my book which lists all the moth larva which can be found on different food plants and it seems to me that this is the only possibility. However, the photograph of this larva in the Micro-moths field guide (Sterling and Parsons) is very different. Perhaps the next instars will change colour.