Saturday, June 23, 2012

SP9326: 23/06/12 - Vapourer Moth larva

Discovered a final instar larva (36mm) of 2026* The Vapourer in the garden today, it was feeding on Hydrangea petiolaris (a climbing hydrangea).  The adult has not been encountered here and so this is a new* garden specie.
The plant has yet to flower this summer (unsurprisingly) and, as usual, some of the stems had not made contact with a surface, thus exposing their adventitious roots. The larva was progressing along one of these stems whilst methodically consuming the roots. Indeed, to my mind, the whitish tufts of hair on the dorsum reminded me of these roots.
I can find no reference of this foodplant used by The Vapourer on the  BRC database 'Insects and their Food Plants'.

A field record of Clepsis consimilana (male) was disturbed from Horse Chestnut 100m from garden.

0994 Clepsis consimilana
2026* The Vapourer

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