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

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Lets .. Play .. Darts!


Amongst the trapped goodies on Sunday night, we took a bewildering range of coastal darts. By range, I mean in terms of size, colouration and markings - not necessarily species! White-line Dart is rare in VC55, and for some reason I've never knowingly seen one when trapping out of county. I was therefore pleased when we took what was apparently White-line Dart, but this was soon tempered by some frustration and confusion as the night wore on and we ended up with a bunch of potted darts that looked like contenders for Coast or Sand, but were quite likely all White-line and probably included one or more 'new' species currently being extracted from the White-line complex (like 'Dusky Dart' Euxoa eruta). So, here's a few 'White-line Darts' which will have their bits scrutinised in due course.

Dark dagger marks, white lines - White-Line Dart?

Very dark, barely discernible white line - Dusky Dart?

Small, sandy, err - WTF Dart?


Luckily there were a few other darts that were not so problematic, and featured highly on the unwritten list of moths that I'd really like to see. Stunning.

Archer's Dart

A bit tenuous, but I suppose an archer's dart is an arrow ....

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