Gull Flock in Miniature

It's no secret that I enjoy the sometimes tricky challenge of gull identification. Unsurprisingly, the very same jollies are there to be had in the world of moths. The pug family is a good example, but last year I was exposed to another: Scoparid moths. I was too fresh a beginner to take them on in the moth avalanche of summer 2022, but now I am ready. Just like gulls, they are largely monochrome, with a bit of brown here and there. Last night I caught nine. Here are eight of them...

I don't think any were longer than 9 or 10mm, so yes, they are small, dull, and all look the same. So why bother, right? Well, in the collage above are three different species. One of them (two individuals) is designated Nationally Scarce B and is new for the garden. Definitely worth the bother.

I'll come back to this lot a bit later. In the meantime, a quick summary of the last couple of nights...

Tuesday night

50 moths of 29 species is the lowest tally for a quite a while. Even so, five of those 29 were new for the year...

First Buff Arches of the summer.

Encountering this salted caramel confection for the first time was a major highlight of last year's mothing. It is common though, and the novelty did wear off. Even so, what a snazzy moth!

Pristine Common Footman, the year's first. There will be lots of these to come...

Pristine V-Pug, the year's first, etc...

Caught two of these last year, which possibly makes our garden a Bridport hotspot - there only three other local dots on the Living Record map.

Not the first this year, but a pretty fresh one.

Small Elephant Hawk-moth was another 'new for year' on Tuesday night, but I managed to make a pig's ear of the photos. I first met this species last summer, but had forgotten how tiny they are.

 

Wednesday night

A night with a theme (see photo at top of post) but also some cracking moths that weren't monochrome. 126 was the total, made up of 43 species. Six new for year, of which four new for garden.

Most of the moths pictured so far have been in amazingly good nick, evidently newly emerged in some cases. This unseemly focus on perfection has been noted by one NQS reader. So, to prove that Dorset moth folk value all moths, regardless of condition, some of the following images feature moths with missing scales...

Just a Common Carpet, but I like these.

Broken-barred Carpet. Caught one of these last year, on almost exactly the same date.

Actually new for the garden on Monday night, but escaped the studio. Rediscovered yesterday, lurking in the conservatory. Treated much less complacently second time around.

Our second Scorched Carpet of 2023. Scuffed, nicked and battered too.

Pristine, immaculate... Blair's Mocha #7

Small Fan-footed Wave. Very alert, very ready to fly at the slightest provocation.

The Med Gull of Scoparids, perhaps. Also, Nationally Scarce B. Quite a few local records though, so I guess it is not too uncommon within its range.

New for the garden, and characterful with it. Win, win.

I nearly overlooked this little cracker. Shan't tell you what I momentarily thought it was, in my bleary-eyed state, but it's no bigger than many pugs, so there's a clue. Anyway, this is Small Seraphim. A garden first, and definitely scarce locally. There are only two nearby dots on Living Record.

I predict lots of these...

...and lots of these.

Another common one, but with that attenuated shape, straightforward to identify.

A common, and increasingly familiar micro.

I remember trapping one of these tiny moths last year but cannot find any record of it, so this counts as new for the garden. Designated 'Local', there are a few Bridport area records.

So, back to the miniature gulls. As the summer progresses, I expect to see more and more of those little monochrome moths. A number of species might turn up here, and I really ought to make the effort to learn them. To that end, I took that collage of eight depicted above, plus my copy of Nick Asher's Common Micro-moths of Berkshire, and applied what's left of my brain to the ID puzzle. Here is what I made of it...

1, 2, 3 - Eudonia lacustrata; 4, 5 E. delunella (#5 presumably a weakly-marked individual); 6 - E. mercurella; 7, 8 - E. lacustrata (#8 a bit worn)

Common Micro-moths of Berkshire is a brilliant volume, and I find myself referring to it all the time. All credit to it then, that my ID conclusions received a pleasing thumbs-up from one or two very experienced moth folk. Without that book I would have been fumbling.

Okay, no more mention of gulls.*

 

* Obviously I mean the metaphorical kind. Real gulls are due a lot of mentions. Always.