Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Anatomy of an identification

This moth came to light on Sunday night:

It was noticeably grey under the light, and I noticed the 'round' shoulders, so my first thought was 'an early specimen of Epirrita sp.' As soon as I got a look at the flash shot, however, I saw it was actually green, so my thoughts transferred to 'worn July high-flyer'. But it's far too late for that (and the pattern's wrong, anyway). So I began to trawl the references and came up with a green specimen of Yellow-barred Brindle, which would also be a bit late. So I sent the picture off for analysis. The recipient came up with two options :Red-green Carpet or Autumn-green Carpet, but neither seemed to fit properly, so it was sent to another person who has experience of these species in Ulster. The consensus comes down to Autumn-green Carpet - Chloroclysta miata - a local species which is usually found near old woodland and bog, and is new to me.

2 comments:

Yoke, said...

Lovely find, Stuart. Compared to the book, it looks indeed very worn.

No wonder it took a few people to ID this little pug.

Gill said...

It's beautiful, and if it were in its natural habitat I bet you'd never see it - that pattern would make fantastic camouflage.