[Jamie D]

Hi,

a friend found the following moth near Darlington during the week and kept it because it looked to small for Mother of Pearl. As we could not think what else it could be I took a quick photo. The next day a picture of Phlyctaenia perlucidalis appeared on UKMoths and I was struck that this may be the same. The size is about 23.5 mm which is correct. I have posted to UKMoths but only got 1 reply confirming it was Phlyctaenia perlucidalis.

As this is a friendly forum I therefore thought I would ask here if anyone believes that runt Mother of Pearl can be eliminated and how? If it is Phlyctaenia perlucidalis I wonder how many as dismissing them as small MoP's.....

Regards,
Jamie

[Angus T]

Jamie,
First of all if you are relying on Goater for an indication of distribution for any species, bear in mind the picture has changed a lot for many species since Goater was published.

I've never seen a small MoP or Phlyctaenia perlucidalis and don't have Goater with me, so can't offer an opinion.

[CJW]

Well, it's certainly a Phlyctaenia perlucidalis. 'Well rare', nice one.

[harry eales]

Hi Jamie,

There is no such thing as a 'runt' in entomological circles.

In any species there may on occasions be specimens larger or smaller than what is accepted as the norm.

If a specimen is over average size it is known as 'Major'
Slightly below average size it is known as 'Minor'
Very small specimens are known as 'Minutissima'.

But never, never, as a 'runt'

Major forms result from abundance of foodplant and good weather permitting large intakes of food by the larva.

Minor and Minutissima forms result mainly from being starved to a greater or lesser degree during the larval stage. These latter two forms are more frequent during years of great heat or prolonged dryness when foodplants shrivel up and die from lack of moisture or rain.

Harry

[CJW]

You say tomato, I say tomato.
Oh! That doesn't work when written does it?