A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral

Despite the wind and rain last night (28/11/2018), I found a sheltered location for the trap, and with a minimum temperature of 10C, it proved to be an excellent night.

Only my third ever record of Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria, which alone would have made it excellent.

27 moths of 10 species at the end of November was more than expected.
Mel.

Very early for a Dotted Border? (although the times they are a changin'), but could it be a dull and dark Scarce Umber?

Clive

Hi Clive,

I agree that it is early, and I spent some time checking the dates of previous records on Mapmate.

I have only seen 2 or 3 examples of Scarce Umber, in addition to my garden records, all of which have been pale. I did notice that UK Moths have a dark example, but the outer cross line looked more like that of Dotted Border to me.

I half expected that someone might make a comment, and I am pleased that you have, as if I have the ID wrong I can correct it, especially if it is a dark Scarce Umber.

Perhaps others have their own thoughts.

Mel.

Hi Mel

I tend to agree with Clive. Even though the central cross line seems quite angled and there
are a series of dots along outer edges on your specimen the dark blotches towards the outer
edge I have only seen on Scarce Umbers. On all the Dotted Borders I have seen seem to have
a series of pale blotches towards the outer edge, also all the images I have seen on UK Moths etc
seem to have the same, not dark blotches. This is quite a tricky one, I'm sure this debate will continue.
Here are a few images of both which I hope will help.

Regards
Greg

Hi Greg,

Your observations with regard to the darker spotting is interesting.

I have looked at all of my Dotted Border images from previous years, which isn’t many (26 records over 16 years with the earliest recorded date of 09/01/2007), but none of them show darker spotting, until the one labelled as Dotted Border on this post. I have looked at various examples in my literature, but unfortunately very little mention is made of this feature.

Scarce Umber

Waring, Townsend and Lewington - show only 1 example which does illustrate minimal darker spotting.
Manley, - likewise has only 1 example, again with some darker spotting.
Skinner, - 1 example with minimal spotting.
UK Moths - show 2 examples, 1 with ‘heavy’ spotting, the other with light.
Clancy, Top-Jenson and Fibiger - show 2 examples and make reference to ‘a series of dark subterminal blotches’.

Dotted Border

Waring, Townsend and Lewington - show only 1 example with no darker spotting.
Manley, - likewise has only 1 example, with no darker spotting.
Skinner, - 1 example, with no darker spotting.
UK Moths - show 4 examples, none showing dark spotting.
Clancy, Top-Jenson and Fibiger - show 1 example, with no reference to ‘dark subterminal blotches’.

Further to that, my image although somewhat darker, looks very similar to your image of Scarce Umber.

At the moment I am thinking that both Clive and yourself are therefore correct.

Thanks to both of you for your comments.

Mel.

Hi folks,

I'd agree it to be a darker example of Scarce Umber too - so much twaddle talked about dots on hind-wings not backed up by photographic evidence - a very large grey area.

Cheers,
Steve

Well that's it then. Scarce Umber it seems to be. Four individuals in 16 years and two of them on the same night. Amazing!

I don't think I have missed any other records of Scarce Umber in the past, but have another definite feature to look for in future.

Thanks for all comments,

Mel.

Checking for moths around the trap last night (02/12/2018) I flushed, and was eventually able to pot up my third Scarce Umber of the year. No problems with ID this time.

The image shows it to be a different individual to the previous records.

Other moths observed were 1 Winter Moth, 1 Light Brown Apple Moth and 1 Tachystola acroxantha.

Checking the trap this morning, there was nothing to add.
Mel.