Langmaid's Yellow Underwing


This species of moth (Noctua janthina) was first described as recently as 1991, having been separated from the exceedingly similar Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua janthe). The first British record came shortly afterwards, with more quickly following, mainly along the south and south-east coasts. It has slowly spread further, with a few Surrey records having been made, but up until this morning I had failed to detect it at Banstead.

Any early janthe (especially a dark one) is worth checking for janthina, so when I spied a candidate in the MV this morning I gave it a thorough examination. It ticked all the boxes - an isolated yellow blob on the upper hindwing (above) and the underside of the forewing exhibiting no pale finger-like projections into the dark base colour (below). I was grateful that Sean Clancy and Nigel Jarman were able to confirm my suspicions. So welcome to Banstead janthina!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Memories of Bob

"Kwowww"

Mike Netherwood