Have you twigged yet?

Whilst the images in this post might not be much to write home about, I was very pleased to find this as it was a new species for me.  This moth is rather scarce but is surely under-recorded.



This was on the first branch I looked closely at and was the only one I found despite searching for a further 15 mins or so, in the pouring rain at Elhampark Woods, East Kent.

Early stages: Scrobipalpa instabilella

One from the salt marsh for a change. There were hundreds and hundreds of these on Sea Purslane on the Medway Estuary near Oare yesterday, the feeding signs and larval spinnings are very obvious, so if you are near any salt marsh this is certainly one worth keeping an eye out for.

 
 
 

Early stages: Ectoedemia heringella

It is still worth checking Quercus ilex for leaf mines: I found dozens of these tenanted mines (and hundreds vacated) yesterday evening, here in East Kent. This moth is known to be spreading from London and the South East, so worth keeping an eye out. On the same tree also watch out for Phyllonorycter messaniella, Stigmella suberivora and old mines of Acrocercops brongniardella - these were all present on the trees I searched yesterday.

Just in case

A bit of searching has yielded dividends over the last few days.

Plenty of Coleophora albitarsella on Ground Ivy, particularly that growing in the shelter of Bramble.




And this needle in a haystack on a lichen-covered Oak tree close to home today - Narycia duplicella