A new moth for my records!

Last night I plugged my trap in once more, and as it was quite mild I decided to stay up past midnight to check the trap area periodically through the night.

In short, despite mild conditions, I should have gone to bed early! Lots of moths and a busy trap with 94 Flounced Rustics counted in the morning, and over 25 Straw Underwing, but very little else, in fact just 21 species were noted.

But, i'm so glad I ran the trap, as when I was going through the trap I was looking at the rim around the edge (Which is a favourite settling place for grass moths) and counted maybe 5 Agriphila genicula/tristella, then one caught my eye, with a shining horizontal white dagger splitting the top from the bottom, selasella perhaps? nope, it is far too slim for that species then my mind went into overdrive and somewhere I found the name and spoke out loud 'latistria' (Like some perplexed madman at 5am). 

This is a new moth for my records and completes the resident Agriphila species here in the UK, boasting my UK list to just shy of 1700 species.

It is the only grass moth species where a longitudinal streak extends into the fringe (termen).

 

It is also the 668th species for the garden since August 27th 2021. 

I always say it, it only takes one moth to make the effort worthwhile (And by effort at home, I mean lack of sleep!). 

 

Moth garden list for 2022 stands at 617 species

Agriphila latistria