I had a bit of a surprise this evening after potting up and provisionally identified a small moth which suddenly appeared in the lounge this evening as my second site record of Metalampra italica. Will try and get a decent photo tommorrow and post it as an amendment to this message and .. to be on the safe side … will probably seek a second opinion as, the yet to be recorded in the UK, M. cinnamomea still needs to be eliminated.
N.b., my first italica turned up in the moth trap on the night of 29th July 2014, the i’d being kindly confirmed by Jon Clifton (gen det).
UPDATE: Photo of moth below. Not the best of images but time was pressing this morning and it was a bit non co-operative!
Hopefully you have it resident Paul.
Hello Raymond. I was wondering that myself. Last years record was a real surprise. Yesterday’s was unexpected. Any others will be more than just coincidence. Various sources state that the larvae feeds within dead wood, with oak being frequently mentioned. There are a number of young-ish (I’m guessing c.30 + yr old) oaks not that far from the garden as the crow flies … so who knows.
The photo looks like italica rather than cinnamomea.
Having spent a bit of my lunch break looking at various images of the two species ‘italica’ would be the logical choice. For a bit of fun, the Microlepidoptera.nl website offers (via Google translate) the following:
“Based on the initial samples (Sept 2013) genital examination distinguishes M. italica from M. cinnamomea by the bright orange or orange-brown ground colour, with the usually sharp (clear light yellow) drawing. M. cinnamomea is more grey, brownish or dark red, with wider tires, a more developed tornusvlek (bottom dot blot) and the drawing paler: yellowish white to white”.