Selection of East Lothian Moths 3

Most of the moths in the third drawer of so-called East Lothian moths are correct and nearly all species are still known from the area. There are only two identification errors. The moths labelled Cloaked Minor are the much commoner Middle-barred Minor. These species are quite similar and both probably occurred in East Lothian at the time, so perhaps an excusable mistake for somebody without much experience in moths.  Large Nutmeg would be a very exciting find now and would have been an unlikely moth to see in East Lothian in Evans’ day, described in a guidebook by Richard South in 1961 as “very local and infrequent in Scotland”. But were there sightings in East Lothian that went undocumented? Could this be proof? Unfortunately not. In this drawer the specimens labelled Large Nutmeg are in fact Dark Arches. Even more obvious a mistake as another pair of Dark Arches appear a few rows above correctly labelled.

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