www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Can someone Id these moths for me please. They are all different individuals but I suspect some are of the same species. If you can would you also please explain what it is you look for to identify and differentiate.

hi teejay,

moths 1,2,3 and 5 look like vines rustic and moth 4 the turnip moth

gary.

Hi Gary
Thanks for that but what characteristics lead to that conclusion rather than Rustic, Powdered Rustic, or in the case of No. 3 the Uncertain ???
Richard

I'd say the color is wrong for Rustic and the markings (don't recall the name in English) look a bit too larger for Rustic and Uncertain. The latter is much less certain, though. I have no idea what Powdered Rustic looks like.

I'm interested in hearing the original reasoning...

Thanks JKT. I'm fairly new to the world of moths and was trying to get some idea of what you guys look for to differentiate between species which look very much alike.

Another one for you keen moth-ers to identify.

Hi Ian,

That's Angle Shades, a lovely moth.

http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1731

Cheers

Lee

Hi teejay,

I think they may all be the same moth, namely the Large Yellow Underwing which can vary significantly in colouring:

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2851

But then I'm no moth expert so may well be wrong

hi teejay,

although vines is somewhat variable overall, it has quite large stigmata ( the round and kidney shaped marks with pale edges) which your moths have compared with both uncertain and rustic.

but the biggest clue is the flight season, the vines are peaking right now were as both rustic and uncertain peak in july and end mid august, its always a good idea to check out the flight seasons as a good guide to narrow down your species options when trying to id similar species, this being a good case,

ive been doing and attending several moth evenigs of late and vines are showing well now here, where as ive not seen uncertain or rustic for a while.

gary.

Lee Hurrell wrote:Hi Ian,

That's Angle Shades, a lovely moth.

http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=1731

Cheers

Lee

I mistakenly thought it was a hawk moth but when I realised my mistake I found it easily in my id book. Thanks especially for the link.
Ian

I had one in my bathroom a few weeks back

re:- teejay's original post.

100% agree with geniculata

Thanks geneculata those are the sort of clues I was after. Although looking at the books there is an overlap. Rustic and Uncertain Jun - Aug and Vines Aug - Sept. What I had not considered was the peaks.
Richard

Any ideas what this little fellow is?

Camptogramma bilineata comes to mind...

Yep, Yellow Shell.

It's also worth checking the hindwing with the Uncertain/Rustic/Vine's Rustic trio - Vine's has pristine, almost pearlescent white hindwings, whereas Uncertain and Rustic have grubby-looking brownish-white hindwings. As previously mentioned, Vine's has the reniform stigmata very rounded, whereas both the other two have more kidney-shaped stigmata. Powdered Rustic has very indistinct stigmata, a distinct row of terminal spots on the forewing, and yellowish-white hindwings, but unless you're trapping in the Channel Islands, you're very unlikely to get it - there's 5 mainland records since 1890, and none since 1945

Another one for ID please.

Hi Rimo

Thanks for that information - should be helpful in the future.

teejay

Hi all you moth-ers, any ideas on my latest find above?