Moth ID

[Goldie M]

Can anyone identify this moth for me please, Goldie M

[Jack Harrison]

Silver-ground Carpet. See my picture:

and more authoritavely:
http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=29

Jack

[Goldie M]

Thanks Jack . Goldie M

[Jack Harrison]

The classic boring brown job (well grey actually). The only points of interest are:



1. how it folds its wings well round its body.
2. she laid hundreds of tiny black eggs in the collecting pot. I have already released the moth but need an i/d to know where to scatter the eggs.

Size about 1.5 cms long.

Jack

[Denise]

Hi Jack,

That could be a very worn Common Swift. The same thing happened to me. I scattered the eggs in long grass.

Denise

[Rimo]

It is Common Swift - the females are dark brown-grey, as here, whereas the males are a far brighter orange. The larvae food on the roots of grasses, and the female usually lays fairly indiscriminantly in flight

[Jack Harrison]

I didn't think of Common Swift. The female is remarkably lacking in patterning, more so in real life than in the books. I'm familiar enough with the males.


Jack