From the garden trap

Not such a nice day weather-wise, a little cool and breezy with few sunny spells. Just aswell really as I spent most of the morning working on a Diploma project and this afternoon trawling around car dealerships looking for something to replace our knackered and expensive-to-run Galaxy.

I did get my microscope out and checked out the Dahlica females from yesterday, plus another that emerged today. There are four things that can be checked: the pupal exuviae headplate, the number of tarsal segments on the legs, the number of antennal segments, and the structure of the anal spines. Checking them is one thing, getting an image with my microscope is extremely hit and miss and I decided not to bother. You'll have to take my word for it that I had 3 x Dahlica triquetrella (including the female pictured yesterday) and 1 x Dahlica lichenella. Here's a couple of older shots showing what the headplates look like:

triquetrella left, lichenella right

The garden trap was similar in numbers to the previous night, though nothing new for the year. Total catch was 48 of 10sp. (125W MV 24 of 8, 80W actinic 24 of 7).

0663 Diurnea fagella 1
0688 Agonopterix heracliana 1
1524 Emmelina monodactyla 1
1746 Shoulder Stripe (Anticlea badiata) 1
1917 Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) 6
2182 Small Quaker (Orthosia cruda) 1
2187 Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi) 9
2188 Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta) 7
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 19
2243 Early Grey (Xylocampa areola) 2