Home and away

The 80 Watt trap was at home on Saturday night and the 125 Watt trap was away - less than a mile away at Woodcote, quite close to the Long Mynd hotel as part of the SACWG moths surveys.

Catches in the two traps were remarkably similar, the away team scoring a couple more species and 12 more moths. Both traps contained an Early Grey, only a day behind the one in Mike's garden. Otherwise nothing was new.

However, my trap last night, though not as full as I hoped (41 moths, 10 species), had two new moths for the Stretton Moths list.

The Shoulder Stripe is quite common and the colours can be quite variable.


Shoulder Stripe

The very pleasant surprise was to spot a golden coloured micro-moth sitting on the rim of the trap, If the sun had not been shining, I would not have seen it, glinting there in the early morning sun.

It was an Eriocrania, now renamed as Dyseriocrania subpurpurella. This moth, with a wing length of about 6mm is a leaf miner on Oak trees. They are often speckled with purple - as its name implies, but this one lacks any such colouration and is unusual in that it is "stripey".



Dyseriocrania subpurpurella