[ID] Which Diamond-back please!

[Jason Green]

Hi all,

I photographed my first Diamond-back Moth of the year today, but I'm just wondering if this is Plutella xylostella, P. haasi - or if I'm wrong altogether!

04/07/2009

Which Diamond-back?

It may look a little deeper in contrast as I had the shading WB used, and though I was technically in the shade in hindsight I don't think I really needed the extra compensation given how bright it's been of late - though I have auto-corrected since...

Thanks for looking!

Take care,

Jason

[John]

I can't even find a photo anywhere of P.Hassi and I think it may have possibly been recorded only once in this country from Beinn Eighe in 1954 so I'm pretty confident in confirming Diamond-back Moth as your moth.

John

[Adam Cheeseman]

Hi Jason,

Can't find any decent pics of P. haasi to do a comparison, but did find this bit of text on a Google search, '...In July an attempt was made by an amateur entomologist to rediscover the species of miromoth, Plutella haasi, of which the only British record is from Beinn Eighe in 1954. Pupae were hatched out from samples of the moth’s likely larval food plant but these turned out to be from a more common, closely related species.'

Don't know if this is up-to-date but would say that it more than likely makes yours P. xylostella.

Cheers,

Adam

[Jason Green]

Ah... so that's why! It just looked deeper-coloured than the silvery one I saw last year.

Thanks John and Adam, it's appreciated!