Yes we have had another warm spell in March this year. It’s been a good March. Got my car back today so hope to get away from home and trap some of the species I have been envious of in other moth-ers posts. Still await my first ever Blossom Underwing but keep hoping.
Late March has added a few species to my year’s list: Agonopterix subpropinquella, A. ocellana, Zelleria hepariella, Caloptilia rufipennella, C. semifascia, Epiphyas postvittana, Nomophila noctuella, Pyrausta despicata, Waved Umber, Brindled Pug, Dotted Chestnut, Powdered Quaker and a very early Pale Mottled Willow which was in my front garden trap potentially making it an immigrant. Moths doing well here this year have been Acleris cristana, Shoulder Stripe and Early Thorn. Poor on Pine Beauty so far but there is still time. March Moth and Dotted Border still hanging on at the end of the month. I have also had regular catches of the queens of Bumble-bee Bombus hypnorum in my front garden trap. The species came to the UK around 12 years as an immigrant and is now one of our commonest Bumble-bees.
I was pleased by the paper on the Anarsia species. Whilst wanting to catch an A. lineatella I was bemused by a ‘Peach Twig Borer’ turning up widely across the country and the images didn’t really resemble that in the Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland. We now know why. The image in MBGBI is correct for A. lineatella except perhaps that the central mark is too confluent with the dorsal one. The species is smaller and darker than either A. spartiella or the now named A. innoxiella which both have more clearly defined markings. The genitalia of A. innoxiella and A. lineatella are exceedingly similar. So any moth determined on genitalia is likely to be A. innoxiella and I suspect only those reared from Prunus can be A. lineatella.