Pine Carpet

From the garden moth trap last night, I don't often catch Pine Carpet, and I've certainly never caught it at the same time as its main associate species, Grey Pine Carpet. A nice chance to make an easy comparison between the two...

Pine Carpet Thera firmata (left) and Grey Pine Carpet Thera obeliscata (right)

When compared like this, identification seems relatively straight forward. There are forms of Grey Pine Carpet which exhibit the reddish-brown ground colour of Pine Carpet, but the central cross-band of the latter species is always faded, and never very well marked out. It starts to get a little bit more confusing when you compare Grey Pine Carpet with Spruce Carpet, but that's one for another day...