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Tuesday 13 October 2015

New moth for Parish records

A fortuitous find at the garden 125MV last night. Having spent an hour in local woods with head torch and net, where I caught nothing, I returned home and checked the trap before locking up for the night.
As I approached, a micro moth flew past and rested on the perspex. I approached cautiously as it looked interesting, but it flew off. Luckily, I was returning my net to the shed and caught it as it headed over the fence.
Upon 1st inspection, a moth I wasn't familiar with but similar to diamond back moth, Plutella xylostella but appeared not to have the right pattern along the back and a little too light in colour.
A check in the book pointed at Plutella porroctella, which indeed it transpired to be.
181st micro for the year and 236th micro for parish records. An uncommon moth for Herts, so a good find.
In all, the moth species list for the parish now stands at a reasonably impressive 537 species and, with a leaf mining trip coming up soon, could possibly pass 550 species by the beginning of November.
Plutella porroctella

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