ID Please

[Greg]

ID Please:

Afternoon All,

Can anyone help me with the ID of this macro caught in Normandy a couple of weeks ago ? The only one I can come up with is a Slender-striped Rufous except the timing is far too early Sept-Oct in the UK. Could it be earlier in Northern France or have I got the species totally wrong ?

[johnK]

Greg,

I won't hazard a guess at your moth's ID but it may help your search to know it's definitely not a Slender-striped Rufous which has a different wing shape and arrangement of stripes across the forewings.

John

[CliveJ]

Is Idaea macilentaria a possibility ?

Clive

[PaulHopkins]

I was wondering about Bright Wave (Idaea ochrata) - some of the images on Lepiforum (http://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Idaea_Ochrata look like a good match.

Cheers,
Paul

[Greg]

Thank you all for your help.

The Slender-striped Rufous was a long shot, as it was the only illustration I could find with a similar wing shape, other than that, the markings, habitat and timing were all wrong. I think Paul has cracked it with the Bright Wave, although looking at the illustration in the book there is no way I could have ever considered that one. In the resting position it looks a totally different animal, apart from the colour.

Following Paul's suggestion I looked on the UK Moths site and hey presto there is a photo of a Bright Wave with it's wings spread which to me is a perfect match.

So again, thanks for your help.

Greg

[SteveH]

Hi Greg,

Bright Wave is a fairly common, easily flushed in the daytime moth - had them all but daily recently in Estonia too. Lovely things.

Cheers,
Steve