Mystery pelagic moth

[John]

Hi Pieter

First of all a warm welcome to WAB from me.

Sorry if you thought I wasn't being friendly. What I said was said in jest, as denoted by the laughing smiley..

Whilst on board I didn't meet anyone that came up with the ID of that last moth. Mind you I didn't get a good look at it until the morning of departure (when I photographed it) so I didn't get to see anyone on the day before who had seen the moth. I found out about it just as it was going back in the fridge on the Wednesday. I didn't get involved in any of the discussions as I wasn't there but I was told on the Thursday morning that no one had come up with an ID.

I managed to ID it on the Saturday at home after going through Leps.it.

I must admit that I don't recognise what Proxenus hospites is and I have done a search on the net for it. It doesn't recognise the name, neither do any moth sites I use recognise the name. What is it?

BTW the Crambid you mentioned isn't a Crambid but a Pyraustinae. I don't remember seeing that. I do remember seeing something similar to a Straw Dot but it was very worn. Was that the moth you meant. It would have been in the same catch as the Silver Y, the Scarce Silver-lines and the Red-veined Darter.

Regarding the Porters Rustic. I found the moth myself and brought it to a fellow WAB member, Adam Cheesman. He identified it after searching with me through Warings. We narrowed it down to three but Adam settled on Porters Rustic (Athetis hospes) and I agreed with him. This was ages before anyone else saw the moth.

BTW what was your overall impression of the cruise?

John

Originally Posted by caliprobola

well, there's was only one belgian person on board who knows something about moths and that's me. i never called myself an expert, i guess Dominique did but Dominique doesn't know anything bout moths so it is easy to be an expert in his eyes. i never said the Proxenus hospites wasn't one, other people came up with the idea of the moth being a probable Archanara dissoluta and without checking the book i said i could agree that it looked something like that. for your information, Proxenus hospites has only been seen once in Belgium, not by me, so forgive me for not knowing the species.
so please stay friendly... the internet is a small world... i came up to this thread by searching for more pictures of Callopistria latreillei. i also found the pic on Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa, trying to find an ID for the mystery pelagic moth...
to give full credits, it must be said that it was Nigel from Kent who first pounted out that the moth had something of the jizz of Callopistria juventina... that was when we were still at sea.
and to re-instate my expert status: on board i re-identified a Rivula sericealis as the crambid migratory species Udea ferrugalis


grtz and see you next year at UP
Pieter

[caliprobola]

i meant Proxenus hospes, the name used in Belgium and the Netherlands for Athetis hospes. i'm sorry, i am not at all familiar with the english names...
the Udea ferrugalis was indeed the same one. Pyraustinae are as far as i know a subfamily of Crambidae. i use the names as on the belgian moth-site Phegea (go to checklists), normally it follows fauna europaea.
nobody on board determined the Callopistria latreillei but Nigel said the jizz made him think of Callopistria juventina.

i think the overall impression of all the belgians was that it was a great cruise. some of us had allready done several trips with the Pride of Bilbao and everyone said UP beats the pride on every point. next year the amount of belgians aboard probably will be more than doubled! allthough the trip had some small points that could be improved but perfection does not exist... i think most birdwatchers were a bit disapointed that they didn't chum when we passed the shipping vessel with the 100+ sooty shearwaters... but i'm glad i didn't have to make decisions like that, when you have 300+ people on board you always dissapoint someone.

[John]

I wish I had taken a photo of that moth now (Udea ferrugalis) as I had never seen one before. Oh well, a missed opportunity.

There were a few missed opportunities on the birding side but that decision to leave that very busy fishing boat early was an amazing one. The people that organised it must have realised the importance of working it a lot more than they did. With that amount of birds around it the short time we were there was ridiculous. It was almost criminal to leave so quickly.

I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the trip but I hope next time that they give equal time to the birders as they did to the Cetacean watchers.

Regarding the moths. I am definitely no expert and have only been trapping about two years (and even then on an ad-hoc basis) so I was well pleased at identifying that last moth on my own, and for realising that I had found what I thought was an important moth with the Porters Rustic.

John