Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Tuesday, 3 May 2022

Suspect from ash?

Remember that Tufted Duck with a nasal saddle that I saw in January? Well as it happens it has been seem again on 28/04/2022 at Lock of Skene near to Aberdeen, just over 500km away ....


I've been dangling a pheromone lure again, and ended up with x1 Pammene sp. in the garden on 30/04/2022 and x3 together at Croft Hill yesterday, all to the MOL lure. The latter were in an area predominantly full of oaks and with no ash in the immediate vicinity raising hope that they may be something different, but having looked at the hindwings of a couple I think they are all Pammene suspectana - gen det will confirm, and potentially from thereon one to ID on external characters.





As far as I can make out both P. suspectana and P. albuginana, which are similar externally, share the dark blackened costal streak to the hindwing, but otherwise the hindwing of P. suspectana is more uniformly grey and P. albuginana has a paler central area making the costal streak stand out even more.

P. suspectana allegedly feeds under the bark of ash, but it appears that is a theory and is not actually verified/proven or at least may not be the whole story.

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