Day 313 - Regularly Voyaging Rush Veneer

Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella)

Hi Everyone, Day 313 and there has been a lot in the news lately about migration, I know as I had to do a piece of homework on the subject Well I'm not going to talk about people today but I'm sure you know that a lot of wildlife migrates and not just birds! Today's species is a migrant moth that we found when moth trapping at the Nosterfield Open Day. It was the only one that I know of that was a migrant amongst all of the species we found. There was another reason I chose this moth today, when I looked through my photos I found the bottom photo - a lot of sites don't describe them as being very interesting but they don't have photos of them like this :-)

Today I'm looking at the Rush Veneer moth. So what did I find out with my research:

• Their shape when at rest is normally a bit more elongated than in my pictures, it looks long and narrow which makes it easy to identify.

• They are quite a small moth, are called a micro moth on some sites I saw, and have a wingspan of 26-32mm.

• You can see the size of it on the hazel leaf I have it on in the photo. For such a small moth it flies a long way - this one I was told was probably from Spain.

• They are found from Northern Africa to Northern Europe and in the UK can sometimes be found in large numbers on the coast.

• They are most common in the South of England which I see from their perspective as they've already had a long way to fly!

• Where we were at Nosterfield is quite a long way from the coast and from what I could find there aren't many sightings of them in Yorkshire but they do get quite far inland.

• They are found flying from May to September but I don't know when they hatch or migrate.

• I did find that the larvae are green, a dirty green according to one site, and like to feed on grasses, clover and other herbs.

• And apparently they do this from inside a silk lined tunnel.

Well that was about all I could find, there isn't as much information about them as some moths but try these sites form more pictures:

Nature Spot - Rush Veneer

Lepi-photos - Rush Veneer

UK Moths - Rush Veneer

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.