A small black moth ? UK

[Roger C. KENDRICK]

Hi Ian,

If you have any birch trees nearby, I'd be tempted to say you have seen one of
the several species of Eriocrania moths that occur in spring sunshine. They're
all pretty small, about a 10mm wingspan when set. At rest, they hold their wings
very steeply tented (tectiform). Under a handlens, the basic ground colour is
usually a metallic dark purple, with a spattering of yellow or golden scales. The
species are quite difficult to tell apart. There are several books to view,
Chinery's Insects of Britian and Western Europe illustrates one species in its
natural resting posture and the Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and
Ireland gives much greater detail about all the species that occur in Britain,
but the illustrations in the volume (either 1 or 2) are rather poor and don't do
the colours justice.
E. sparmanella (which occurs in Britain) is illustrated at
http://mpi-seewiesen.mpg.de/~kaisslin/pheronet/ins/eriocsparr.html

Hope this helps,

Roger.

Dr Ian Dunn wrote:

> Hi
>
> Stuck my head out of the back door this am , into the sunshine , very close
> to the conurbation of Nottingham to find something small and black on my wall
> at about 1.5m basking in the sun . I've not seen this before . There is a
> garden which usually seems insect friendly , a hedge row and fields the
> otherside of the A 52 .There are ponds too .
>
> It's 1cm long , overall black but with a yellow V on its back and the
> impression of being dusted with pollen ( perhaps it has been ! ) The legs
> seem to be black and white , reminded me of a zebra spider ( only 6
> though ! ) . At first I thought it might have been a beetle but a hand lens
> leads me to believe it is a moth .
>
> Does this description remind any one of anything ?
>
> Ian
>
> --
> Dr Ian Dunn mailto ianadunn at globalnet.co.uk
> Monsanto Monopoly Monoculture Mayhem Megamess
> I'm saying
> NO NO thankyou



--
Roger C. KENDRICK
  Demonstrator / Ph.D. Student
  Dept. of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong
  mailto:kendrick at hkusua.hku.hk

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