Tue 16/07/2019

As I was dragging my bike out of the garden into the back alley to cycle to work at about 6:30 this morning, this large dragonfly landed in a lilac tree in a neighbour’s garden. I manage one shot before it took off again, but I had high hopes wasn’t one of the usual species I see all the time, because I did not recognise the coloured markings. As it happens though, it is a dead common migrant hawker – but the pinkish colouration is due to it being a juvenile. I found the micro moth overleaf on the outside of the warehouse wall at work.

I have seen the moth below several times before, and I would identify it unhesitatingly as a bird-cherry ermine. Checking the book though, it seems to be one of the other similar ermine moths – the bird-cherry has noticeably more spots than this. Several of the other species are very similar though, and I could not make a positive ID.

Having ruled out the bird-cherry, there are several other species that are all very similar. I noticed someone else on Twitter having trouble identifying a very similar moth, so I threw my hat into the ring and we reeived a reply from a very useful expert named UKMothIdentification. I should point out that very similar species of spider, moth etc. is by a microscopic examination of their reproductive organs. I guess that whn they look that similar, they have to have some inbuilt method of making sure they reproduce within their species, so they have specific genital specialisations that a naturalist can use to identify the. On this occasion though, UKMothIdentification said the following:

So, Apple, Spindle, Orchard and Willow are all too variable to be IDed from appearance, and on top of that they can't be separated by genitalia either, as they're also similar in that department. The only way is to see their caterpillars, and upon which plants they are feeding.

Time travel isn’t yet within my remit, so this one must remain forever a mystery.