The Joys of Being a Moth-er

The Joys of Being a Moth-er

Just thought I'd highlight the '-' in 'moth-er'. Luckily, I won't have to experience what it is like to be a mother, but from personal experiences as being a son, I can guess that there are few joys associated with it.

Secondly, you can keep your Rufous Turtle Dove in Oxfordshire and your Slaty-backed Gull in Essex, cos' I've got me here an Agonopterix scopariella.

If you don't know, for some weird reason like you don't spend your day looking at photos of the sub-family Depressariinae, this species of micro moth is scarce in Surrey, and very hard to separate from many of its counter-parts, but thanks to a second opinion from the micro-lepidopterist, John Langmaid, I have now added another 'dot' to the Surrey micro moth distribution map, slap bang on our garden. These maps should be included in a book called 'Smaller Moths of Surrey' published later this year which funnily enough covers the smaller moths of Surrey; and thus with my trusty dot, I shall become famous.

... Agonopterix scopariella, caught in the act of taking in UV light from a fluorescent tube in the garden, on the 24th February- distinguished from heracliana by the paler, buffer overall ground colour, and from atomella and subpropinquella by the presence of two white discal spots on a faint but distinctive black background of scales... obviously. Would you just look at that squared forewing apex, Christmas has come early.

So there you go, catch a moth, send it to your county moth recorder and you could find yourself living the high life, like I will be... any day now, girl in each arm, people coming up to me in the streets asking for identifications, autographs, the lot. I can just imagine it...