Selection of East Lothian Moths 4

This is the final drawer in the series devoted to a “selection of East Lothian moths”. A couple of species would be notable finds today and probably 50-100 years ago too. Grey Arches occurs further North and West in Scotland and although one or both of the Evans’ may have seen it in Scotland, almost certainly not in East Lothian. Beautiful Brocade is similarly questionable as an East Lothian moth and if it was encountered here would have been considered sufficiently unusual to warrant publication in an entomological journal. Unfortunately neither species have labels with useful details so we will never know. Flounced Chestnut is a species I remain hopeful of ‘rediscovering’ in East Lothian. There are a couple of old records from the Lammermuirs so this specimen is just about a legitimate inclusion in this drawer but again, no specimen details mean its origin is unknown.

Burnet Noctua (=Burnet Companion) and Small Purple-barred both occurred in East Lothian a hundred years ago but haven’t been recorded here since. They are day-flying moths and easily overlooked; maybe they still occur somewhere in the county – I would love to see either! One of the original small Purple-barred is missing – all that remained of it when I examined the drawer was a wing. Presumably the result of pest damage, but fortunately this is the only casualty from the collection.

The only mis-identified species in this drawer are the moths labelled Gold Spangle which are in fact Gold Spot. The label attached to one of the moths – Plusia festucae – is correct so William Evans snr. at least got the identification correct. It could simply be a case of a muddling of similar names – if somebody at the time had questioned it, William Edgar Evans might have replied “ah Gold Spot, that’s what I meant!”. Easily done.

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