Description


A diary of my mothing activity covering highlights and photos from my moth trapping activities. Mainly Norfolk (UK), occasionally beyond. I may mention other wildlife sightings here, especially insects, but for birds see my birding diary.

Saturday 16 March 2019

A 'Notable' leafhopper: Eurhadina ribauti

There was a good selection of moths on the night of 15th September, though nothing as good as the Corn Moth Nemapogon granella that I'd found on the front door earlier on.  They were Beech Midget Phyllonorycter maestingella, Diamond-back Plutella xylostella, Vetch Sober Aproaerema anthyllidella, Large Fruit-tree Tortrix Archips podana, Light Brown Apple-moth Epiphyas postvittana, 2 Garden Rose Tortrixes Acleris variegana, 4 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Elbow-stripe Grass-veneer Agriphila geniculea, 4 Narrow-winged Greys Eudonia angustea, 3 Blood-veins, 3 Small Dusty Waves, Common Marbled Carpet, Green Carpet, 2 Brimstone Moths, 2 Dusky Thorns, 2 Light Emeralds, 4 Large Yellow Underwings, 3 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Square-spot Rustic, White-point, Common Wainscot, Centre-barred Sallow, 12 Lunar Underwings, Pink-barred Sallow, 3 Sallows, Mouse Moth, Flounced Rustic, Frosted Orange, Straw Dot and 3 Snouts.

Vetch Sober Aproaerema anthyllidella, North Elmham, 15th September


The caddisflies were Polycentropus flavomaculatus, Mottled Sedge Glyphotaelius pellucidus, Grammotaulius nigropunctatus, 2 Limnephilus affinis, 3 Limnephilus auricula, 3 Limnephilus flavicornis, 6 Limnephilus lunatus and 2 Limnephilus sparsus.

Bugs were represented by Black-kneed Capsid Blepharidopterus angulatus, barkflies by Ectopsocus briggsi and beetles by Aphodius rufipes.

The following day I found another Thatch Neb Bryotropha basaltinella, inside the house this time.  It was my fifth here this year and my 10th here since I moved in in 2014.  It was clearly a good year for this species as not only did I have as many as had been recorded in the county before, but two other recorders also found the species, the first county records from anywhere other than my garden (East Harling and Stoke Holy Cross, the latter involving two individuals and new for VC27).

Thatch Neb Bryotropha basaltinella (female, gen det), North Elmham, 16th September


That night was good.  The best moth was a Dark Smudge Ypsolopha horridella, my second and only about the 14th for the county.

Dark Smudge Ypsolopha horridella, North Elmham, 16th September


Other moths were a Bucculatrix sp. (think this must have escaped as I didn't photograph it and have no specimen), Garden Midget Phyllonorycter messaniella, Little Dwarf Elachista canapennella, Brown House Moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella, Brindled Flat-body Agonopterix arenella, Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix Pandemis cerasana, 6 Light Brown Apple-moths Epiphyas postvittana, 4 Garden Rose Tortrixes Acleris variegana, 2 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Nut-bud Moth Epinotia tenerana, 2 Narrow-winged Greys Eudonia angustea, Gold Triangle Hypsopygia costalis, White Plume Pterophorus pentadactyla, Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla, Small Dusty Wave, Green Carpet, 3 Brimstone Moths, Dusky Thorn, 4 Light Emeralds, Ruby Tiger, 4 Large Yellow Underwings, 2 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Square-spot Rustic, Common Wainscot, 9 Lunar Underwings, Sallow, Mouse Moth, 2 Vine's Rustics and 6 Snouts.

A Pond Olive Cloeon dipterum represented the mayflies and neither green nor brown lacewing were fully identified.  The green was a female Chrysoperla carnea agg., almost certainly carnea but females can't be separated from the non-Norfolk pallida.  The brown was a Hemerobius lutescens or humulinus.  Normally these can be separated easily enough but this one, a female, wasn't clear.

Caddisflies were 3 Mottled Sedges Glyphotaelius pellucidus, 7 Limnephilus auricula, 2 Limnephilus flavicornis, 3 Limnephilus lunatus, 2 Limnephilus sparsus and Grouse Wing Mystacides longicornis.

It was the bugs that held the most interest with a very decent selection.  The highlight was a dark Phytocoris which I had to look pretty hard at to be sure it wasn't just a dark Phytocoris tiliae (one of which was also trapped).  In the end I resorted to checking the genitalia to confirm the ID - it was a new one for me, Phytocoris dimidiatus.

Phytocoris dimidiatus (male, gen det), North Elmham, 16th September


Phytocoris tiliae, North Elmham, 16th September


A Pantilius tunicatus was new for the year.

Pantilius tunicatus, North Elmham, 16th September


Other bugs were Birch Shieldbug Elasmostethus interstinctus, 3 Forest Bugs Pentatoma rufipes, Black-kneed Capsid Blepharidopterus angulatus, Lygus pratensis, Tarnished Plant Bug Lygus rugulipennis, Psallus varians and the leafhoppers 3 Kybos betulicola and 2 Fagocyba cruenta.  Barkflies (or barklice) consisted of a Graphopsocus cruciatus (new for the year) and 5 Ectopsocus of which at least 2 were Ectopsocus petersi.

Graphopsocus cruciatus, North Elmham, 16th September


Beetles were Amara apricaria, Nicrophorus investigator and Curculio venosus.  There was also a Hornet.

There were 3 new macro moths for the year the following night: Mallow, Green-brindled Crescent and Beaded Chestnut.  There were 35 species of moths in all, a good total for this time of year.  The others were Diamond-back Plutella xylostella, Little Dwarf Elachista canapennella, Brown House Moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella, Vetch Sober Aproaerema anthyllidella, 2 Light Brown Apple-moths Epiphyas postvittana, 3 Garden Rose Tortrixes Acleris variegana, Common Marble Celypha lacunana, Rush Marble Bactra lancealana, 3 Blood-veins, Small Blood-vein, Small Dusty Wave, Riband Wave, Garden Carpet, Common Marbled Carpet, Green Carpet, 2 Brimstone Moths, Dusky Thorn, Light Emerald, Ruby Tiger, 6 Large Yellow Underwings, 7 Lesser Yellow Underwings, Setaceous Hebrew Character, 2 Square-spot Rustics, White-point, 3 Common Wainscots, 18 Lunar Underwings, Pink-barred Sallow, Sallow, Mouse Moth, Flounced Rustic, Vine's Rustic and 4 Snouts.

Mallow, North Elmham, 17th September


Green-brindled Crescent, North Elmham, 17th September



A selection of lacewings consisted of 1-2 Chrysoperla carnea, Cunctochrysa albolineata (both green lacewings), the waxfly Conwentzia psociformis and the brown lacewing Hemerobius lutescens.  Also a Common Earwig.

There were 7 species of caddisfly: 2 Lype phaeopa, 3 Mottled Sedges Glyphotaelius pellucidus, 4 Limnephilus auricula, Limnephilus flavicornis, 9 Limnephilus lunatus and Limnephilus sparsus.

Bugs consisted of Lygus pratensis, 2 Kybos betulicola and the highlight of the nght, a decent new leafhopper.  It was easy to establish that it belonged to the genus Eurhadina, and a more careful look narrowed it down to one of two species, Eurhadina concinna or Eurhadina ribauti.  It was bound to be concinna as that's a widespread and common species on Oak rather than ribauti which is apparently much rarer, but to be sure you have to dissect them.  Well I like to be sure, and good job I do as it was in fact the rarer one, Eurhadina ribauti.  It's hard to get up to date information about the status of the various leafhopper species in Norfolk, but nationally it is listed as Notable B and there are only 12 records across the whole of the UK showing on NBN.  Apart from one in London these are all in the West Midlands or Wales, but this doesn't necessarily mean it is rare or unrecorded in Norfolk.




Eurhadina ribauti (male, aedeagus shown), North Elmham, 17th September


There were also 8 Ectopsocus barkflies.  I suspect they were all the same but I only checked one, an Ectopsocus petersi.  A Nicrophorus investigator was the only beetle and there was a Hornet.

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