Clever me

I thought that we might spend a little time in Lilliput today, starting with an immodest bit of boasting. I may be riding for a fall but I think that after identifying two different Pug moths yesterday - an infuriatingly difficult tribe - I feel bold enough to start by naming a further two today. Four Pugs ID-ed in a row! What is my world coming to?

So, I assert that the top two pictures are Tawny Speckled Pugs, greatly helping me with their large patches of russet brown; while the third picture below is a V-Pug. That might seem a bit easy-peasy, given its distinctive colouring, but not so fast! There is also a Green Pug which is pretty similar. Note, however, that our moth has the black Vs on its forewings which give the species its name.

For all their diminutive size, the Pugs are officially macro-moths. Let us now tiptoe into the world of micros, starting with a delicate Udea lutealis and then the distinctive, 'crouching' Evergestis forficalis which has the relatively rare lustre for a micro of an English name: Garden Pebble.

Continuing in  this boldly confident vein, I pronounce the micro shown twice below to be Euzophera pinguis, but that is one which I will definitely need to check with the Upper Thames Moths blog experts. 

Next, I believe, is a Ditula angustiorana or Red-barred Tortrix and after that, two of the four purple bretheren among the micros: Pyrausta purpuralis and Pyrausta aurata.

Thence to a sweetly patterned Cacoecimorpha pronubana or Carnation Tortrix, which lives happily in our greenhouse (seen here on a Morning Glory leaf).

And lastly, in this highly unusual tour-de-force of identification, we have the dramatically streamlined  Crambus lathoniellus.  None of today's moths  is much wider than a thumbnail, but into those small spaces, they pack much beauty.