Idaea inquinata. It's well known for feeding on dried plants and can be a nuisance in botanists' herbaria. See http://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwik ... _inquinata.

Misha

Hi Serhiy.

I think your moth is actually Archiearis parthenias, a day active species (Geometridae) that feeds as a larva on Birch (Betula pendula).

Misha

Nice to see a number of male Brimstones flying today in NE Hants. I wonder if someone could assist with a moth identification? What is flying at this time of year - brown, size of a small speckled wood butterfly but more 'squarish' in wing-shape with a fluttering flight. Seen early afternoon in rou...

Erebia montana?

Misha

Kungsfiskare is the modern Swedish for Kingfisher. Is there any evidence that the word is derived from Old Norse, or could it be a recent coinage? Danish seems to have borrowed from German with Isfuglen for Eisvogel, which brings us neatly back to butterflies since the White Admiral is in German Kle...

Here's another escheri with a cell spot. La Pobla de Segur, pre-Pyrenees, July 1977.

Misha

In answer to Roger's query about butterflies above 2400 m in Europe: don't forget the Sierra Nevada, where several species comfortably exceed that altitude, and not only alpine specialists. I saw our homely Wall at around 3000m. and several Small Tortoiseshells at the summit of Pico de Veleta at 339...

Higgins and Riley give lime as a larval foodplant of the WLH. Humphrey Bowen, in the Flora of Dorset, also mentions the hybrid lime as a larval foodplant. E. Friedrich, in Breeding Butterflies and Moths, states that in captivity larvae can be reared on the leaves of Purging Buckthorn, or even the un...

I had thought that the specimens illustrated in South might be alfacariensis , but couldn't make up my mind. None of the characters usually quoted are entirely reliable, not even wing shape. I heard of a specimen belonging to R.F.Bretherton that had been re-identified several times, so difficult was...

388px-Jacob_huebner_s15.jpg Most of us are probably familiar with the story of how Berger's Clouded Yellow came to be recognised as a good species following the discovery of its distinctive larva. It always struck me as extraordinary that this striking caterpillar had to wait until the mid-twentiet...

At midday today in lovely sunshine with a light westerly breeze and about 6° in the shade, a Red Admiral fluttering about then basking on a south facing wall.

Misha

The Oxon Maps were at Cholsey, by the river, near Wallingford but not in the Chilterns. I saw them there when I lived at Reading. I met a chap there I suspected of being the introducer.

Misha

I had package holidays on the Costa del Sol in late March 1977 at Mijas and in 1986 at Nerja. It is difficult to recommend specific localities because there has been so much development in the area since then. Looking at Google Earth I can hardly recognise the place now. However, if you're prepared ...

For the white I would suggest ergane, very local in Spain, but I have seen it at the Congost de Collegats, near La Pobla de Segur.

Misha

In that area the coridon could be hispana , which I have seen at La Pobla de Segur, a little to the north, at the end of May. The butterflies are worn, which fits better for hispana . The baton lacks orange lunules, so panoptes seems in order. Again, I have seen specimens intermediate between baton ...

I incline towards trivia for the first - the submarginal spots are distinctly saggitate. It looks very like the specimens illustrated in Manley and Allcard.

Misha

I can't agree with Gruditch. Nettles remain healthy throughout the winter in many places, not only on the coast. It was Mike Tucker who first reported on overwintering larvae in Surrey. I think that would have been in the 90s. I was astounded at the time, but when I started looking here in Bournemou...

Gibster I don't know if you got an answer to your earlier query about guides to butterflies of Morocco, but if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_Butterflies_of_Morocco and scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find a couple of useful references. The list itself has some sil...

Not sure if you wanted names for any of your "other creatures" from your Spanish trip, but here goes with some: The dragons are Red-veined Darter (lower part of eye bluish) The grasshopper is the Egyptian Grasshopper (common all round the Med.) Your hoverfly is a bee (?Megachilidae) Your f...

Just looked at this interview. The most fascinating thing for me was seeing the extraordinary resemblance of the Australian Cossula magnifica to the unrelated Buff-tip; a fine example of convergent evolution.

Misha