Little black micro

Stumbling around Hintlesham Woods at 6 in the morning last Sunday doing a bird survey, I stopped at one of the ponds to see if any newts had laid eggs on the surface vegetation. They hadn’t, but I did notice a micro sat on a blade of grass overhanging the water. With my inexperienced micro-hat on it I thought that it was a female longhorn, but on further perusal of literature I think it was Micropterix calthella. Basically it was black, with a ginger crown. Later the same day in Wolves Wood, I found another, again on pondside vegetation. Be grateful for validation or comment.

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One Response to Little black micro

  1. Tony Prichard says:

    Hi Mark. It’s possible, although the wings are normally more dark bronze-coloured. M. aruncella is the confusion species, the female doesn’t have distinctive white fascia of the male, so can be confused with M. calthella. If it has purple-colouring at the base of the wing then it will be M. aruncella. M. calthella is much the commoner species it appears.

    Tony

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