2018 December 4

 

   Here is a Common Firebrat Thermobia domestica.  Compare it with the Grey Firebrat Ctenolepisma longicaudata  shown on November 30.  Apart from the difference in pattern and colour, C. longicaudata has a longer and more slender abdomen (“longicaudata” – which presumably refers to the abdomen  rather than to the caudal appendages).

 

Firebrat Thermobia domestica   (Zygentoma:  Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

   Ron Flower writes:   I don’t know if you have seen the collection of different moths on the trees at the entrance to Cattle Point. I found them a few days ago around November 28.

 

   Jeremy Tatum replies:  I was at Cattle Point this morning, and I didn’t notice them!   However I went again this afternoon, and I found there about a dozen or so Garry Oaks with these sticky bands around them, presumably put there to trap the wingless female Winter Moths as they climb up the oak trunks.

There were what must have been tens of thousands of insects and spiders caught in the glue, including many male and female Winter Moths.  I didn’t spot any other species of moth.

 

Moth graveyard, Cattle Point    Ron Flower