Second County Site for Rare Micromoth Nemophora minimella, sub-family Adelinae, familiy Incurvariidae

By Kevin McGee

The small Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve Mill Meadow at Drakes Broughton has turned up quite a number of interesting entomological records on the few visits I made in 1999 On 24.6.99 I photographed one of about six small highly 'metallic' longhorn moths at the flowers of corn-mint. The rather bright greenish eyes of the moth were quite noticeable through the camera view-finder. Unable to identify them from my slides I sent one to Dr ANB Simpson for determination and he told me they were Nemophora minimella belonging to sub-family Adelinae of the family Incurvariidae. Mill Meadow is only the second known site for the species in Worcestershire, the other being Pitcher Oak Wood near Redditch. The presence of corn-mint is immaterial as the species depends on Devil's-bit Scabious for its life cycle.

With grateful; thanks to Dr ANB Simpson for his expertise.

Reference

Robbins, J 1997 A provisional atlas of the lepidoptera of Warwickshire Part 3: The smaller moths and more primitive larger moths.

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