6 September 2014

6 September 2014 – Notch-wing Button

Notch-wing Button (Acleris emargana)

Acleris emargana

had made itself virtually invisible and I was fortunate to see it as it clung to the wooden frame.  The deep notch in its wings is not shown as clearly as it could be, but it is a restless moth and not easy to photograph.  The scientific name ‘the unallotted one that comes out of (e) the margin’ seems suitable for a moth that is not straightforward to identify.

A separate species existed when Humphreys and Westwood published British Moths and their Transformations.  The second species was known as  Acleris effractana (The Common Notch-wing). Later lepidopterists reached different conclusions and the two species were merged into one.  As recently as 2003 opinions changed and effractana was granted full scientific status.  You can see both as illustrations beneath.    

The Chequered Notch-wing (Acleris emargana)

The Chequered Notch-wing and the Common Notch-wing flutter over plate 95 of the 1843 edition with a caterpillar of the Mallow Notch-wing dangling from the painted grass-stem.Effractana is also referred to as the Hook-winged Tortrix – so that gives us a number of possible names for this nearly invisible insect. 

I can’t say with any degree of certainty whether it was emargana or effractana or which Notch-wing it was that visited Shandy Hall gardens, but whichever one it was we can now record 357 species.  Until another similar turns up, of course.

Common Notch-wing (Acleris effractana)