Over the last few weeks I find myself increasingly writing “agg.” in the moth records.
The initial excitement of narrowing your ID search down to just a couple of possible species turns to mild frustration when the books don’t give enough information to be able to separate one from the other.
It’s even more frustrating when the book does tell you how to tell the species apart, but you’ve neglected to photograph (or even look at) the critical, subtle feature !
It seems a pity not to be able to get a confident ID to species level.
Is there any way (from these photos) to determine whether these three specimens are Uncertain or Rustic (assuming they’re not something altogether different) ? Grateful for any views on why they are one or the other. (Forewing length of all three is about 14mm).
- Specimen 1
- Specimen 2
- Specimen 3