7th April

Slade Wood- Notable Micro's

I had another try at this wood because the last two visits I undertook were under not the best of conditions.
This time a much more rewarding evening came forth with several species.
The best of the macro's for me was the Pine Beauty which I had found here before, but none the less, it is a delight to see with its beautiful colours of red, orange and white in this case.

Pine Beauty

I have not seen a great of micro's so far this year so to have a couple of important ones in the same evening was pleasing.
The first encountered was Semioscopis steinkellneriana which quite happily came to the light.
A localised moth which may have been seen at this site before by George Tordoff recently.
I'm not entirely sure if it was S. steinkellneriana or S. avellanella that George saw? If it was the former then it is good to know its thriving here.

Semioscopis steinkelleriana

The second one was a very lucky capture because I only saw it when I was about to pack up the kit.
This tiny micro had perched on the roof of the car right at the back end towards the boot.
Only the combination of light and my height gave this one away as its shape silhouetted against the background, so very lucky indeed.
I did not think it relevant at the time when I viewed it, but its nose was pointing downwards.
It was only after I looked over it with the few photographs taken the following morning, that this posture became more important.

Zelleria hepariella

I did think it was a type Caloptilia species at first namely C. betulicola, but then found Zelleria hepariella-Brown Ash Ermine, only adopted this posture where as Caloptilia species sit with front legs high at a steep angle.
Its food plant is indeed Ash, which is of course is common and fairly widespread so there should be plenty around I would have thought.
The biggest issue here is they are very small and this must lead onto a under-recording situation most likely. Sam Bosanquet reports that they are 'Uncommon' in the county which must mean there not too many records of this micro, so not a bad night at all.