Wednesday 18 May 2016

Cuckooflower Longhorn


Please look out for the Longhorn moth Cauchas (Adela) rufimitrella on Lady's Smock (aka Cuckooflower) flowers if you're out on daytime walks.  I have seen it 4x in the last week here at Dingestow, and Steve Williams saw one near Cwmbran yesterday.  Bizarrely there are only 9 previous VC35 records of this common little moth in the database, 6 of which are mine.  It's very distinctive: metallic green with medium-long white-tipped antennae.

Don't confuse it with the metallic green Micropterix calthella, which is about 1/2 the size, has short antennae, and sits on Buttercup/Kingcup flowers (and a few other things) munching pollen.

2 comments:

  1. Steve showed us these moths today on Henllys LNR. There were plenty of them with the males showing off to the ladies. Pic on twitter @Henllyslnr

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve showed us these moths today on Henllys LNR. There were plenty of them with the males showing off to the ladies. Pic on twitter @Henllyslnr

    ReplyDelete

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