Few but new!

It has continued to be chilly at night and there have only been a few moths, but at least some of them have been new to the site. Last night there were only 12 moths, 2 of which were not in the trap but on the wall next to it - both were new! One of these moths was frosted - no, not that cold - it was a Frosted Green (a Thyatiridae, not a Noctuidae) and the other was a Yellow-barred Brindle (a Geometridae).


Frosted Green

But in spite of the weather there has been a lot going on. Some of the larvae I collected from the heather in the garden last year have succesfully emerged and have caused some rethinking!

Yellow-barred Brindle

Yes, I have had a Ling Pug emerge, as I reported in a recent post and indeed a second one, BUT when the next moth emerged it was a Narrow-winged Pug - and so more research was needed.

Narrow-winged Pug

The best place for that was on the UK-leps site and lo-and-behold there are beautiful photos of  Pug larva there.

In spite of my previous efforts I now need to change some of my records because they are wrong!






It appears that lovely purple and white larva (5 October) is that of the Narrow-winged Pug (not Ling or Satyr) and a similar, but much duller larvae (not shown) is that of the Ling Pug.

Otherwise, there have been a number of larvae in the garden, most notably those eating the leaves of the Primroses and Cowslips. Identifying these is either by a one-by-one search of The UK Caterpillars book, (or the UKMoths site) or by searching the "food plants" literature - if you have got it!

There is quite a range of larvae to choose from, all very similar looking, one of which is called the Uncertain!
It may be a long time before I am sure.