Sunday 15 May 2016

Mompha langiella

 
This small, drab Micro was fluttering in the morning sunshine in the Dingestow Court garden today.  I assumed it was going to be an oddly marked Psychoides filicivora, but the resting posture, palp length and markings were all wrong.  Then I twigged it's a Momphid: the uncommon Mompha langiella which has only 3 previous VC35 records (the last in 2002 at Dingestow).  Unlike most British Momphids, which feed on Willowherbs, this one lives on the closely-related Enchanter's Nightshade (Circaea).  This foodplant is a problem weed in the garden here, so it's nice to know that this particular cloud has a silver lining.

My other invertebrate highlight today was spotting the spectacular Orange-sided Comb-horn cranefly (Ctenophora pectinicornis) by Dingestow Court Lake: another good addition to the parkland invert fauna.

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