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

Sunday 25 July 2021

Twist : Torts and Ticks

I'm going to focus on various Tortricidae from the garden, and including some ticks. In no particular order. First up, a couple of non-descript looking Torts that were confirmed via gen det courtesy of Andy Mackay:

Grapholita tenebrosana - 12/07/2021 - a full blown tick for me

Grapholita funebrana - 13/07/2021, previous records in 2017 & 2018

Oddly enough, I've had neither of these to the pheromone lures that seem to have attracted them for others (SKI & MOL). Unlike the following two; whilst these were never really in doubt, they have been confirmed by gen det too:

Pammene suspectana to MOL - 29/05/2021

Grapholita lobarzewskii to SKI - 13/06/2021

And this one too:

Dichrorampha vancouverana - 01/07/2021


The following was new for the garden, though I didn't realise until after it had been dismissed with the rest of the catch so only this quick snap.

Eucosma hohenwartiana - 16/07/2021

Also new for the garden, though not a classic specimen!

Variegated Golden Tortrix - 12/07/2021


None of the following were new, though only single records for each:

Gypsonoma oppressana - 17/07/2021 (one previous record 2013)

Cydia fagiglandana - 17/07/2021 (one previous record 2020)

Acleris kochiella - 22/07/2021 (one previous record 2011)


The following will be new for the garden when confirmed - pending gen det:

Dichrorampha sp. (alpinana / flavidorsana) - 17/07/2021
D. flavidorsana would be a full tick for me

Endothenia sp. - 22/07/2021


And to round up the Tortrix overload, none of the following are 'special', except that they are Tortricids which are perhaps my favourite moth group.

Epiblema foenella

Cydia splendana

Epinotia nisella

Lobesia abscisana

Zeiraphera isertana

Lozotaeniodes formosana

Rhyaconia buoliana

Pammene fasciana

Celypha lacunana

Finally sticking with the Tortrix theme, the Epinotia spp. that I netted a couple of weeks ago were confirmed as Epinotia tedella and Epinotia nanana by gen det.

Tortrix is derived from the Latin tortus, meaning twist - alluding to the leaf-rolling habits of many of these species.

9 comments:

Steve Gale said...

Your having a fine spell with the inverts Skev.

Steve Gale said...

You’re even…

martinf said...

blown away by the pics, so much better than I am getting with the TG6!

Skev said...

Yes Steve, it's been a good month around the light trap in lieu of getting out and about.

Thanks Martin; some of these (and you can see which) were literally just with the dim actinic light, the LED light guide attachment on the camera doing all the work. It's been liberating, so much easier than a bigger camera with flash for this sort of stuff. The TG-6 is now as important at the trap as some pots and the dictaphone.

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Steve Gale said...

Skev, this TG-6… have you got the macro attachment as well? Am seriously considering this for an ‘in the pocket’ solution. Cheers.

Bennyboymothman said...

That Celypha looks like cespitana to me?
Nice set of Torts :)

Skev said...

Steve, all of these are handheld with the TG-6 and the additional LED light guide - no additional macro lens. For relatively static stuff this camera is turning out to be pretty decent, especially with the in-camera stacking function as long as you get the settings right. I'm still not convinced that it's much good for out and about in the field, eg for insects on flower heads. This is mainly due to the optical zoom being only 4x so to get a decent-sized image you have to get in close.

Skev said...

Thanks Ben. Wish it was cespitana; we only have two VC55 records and one of those is unlikely to be verifiable. We are in the big blank area for this species that you see in the distribution maps. I have had a good look after you mentioned it but am still confident it is just lacunana.