Moth for ID

[zigzag_wanderer]

Hi,

I snapped this moth at work last Tuesday (26th July).

The garden mums (chrysanthemums) always seem to attract a lot of insects even when not in flower. It may be the density of leaf cover for protection.

I disturbed it when walking by and it flew underneath a leaf. I included a snap with my latest sightings roundup. I thought it would be easy to ID based on the wavy lines on the wings but I struggled to find an exact match. It looked closest to things like the Golden Pearl (Anania verbascalis) and indeed Allan thinks it could be an Anania (just to add another "an" into the mix ).

Any help nailing down gratefully received as always.

[zigzag_wanderer]

...and the more I look at it, the more I see a human eye looking back at me toward the corner of the right forewing...

[Chris Speke]

Might it be The Old Lady Moth

[Trev Sawyer]

How about Udea lutealis (Pale Straw Pearl)?

[Allan.W.]

Or Anania Crocealis ............just a thought .

[zigzag_wanderer]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I always appreciate any consideration.

I know a better photo would help. Mine aren't great at the best of times but it's even more tricky when a). the subject goes underneath a leaf and b). I'm nominally supposed to be working

Thanks for the suggestion Chris. It has just reminded me that I didn't give any idea of the size of it, so sorry for that. It was quite a small moth, maybe 25-30 mm wingspan. So I think Old Lady would probably be excluded on size. It was quite light too. It looked almost a light orange in flight but when still it looked more of a honey-coloured yellowy/brown.

As such I think it is probably a Pearl-type, as Allan and Trev have put forward, although I'm still not quite sure what it is ! I've attached a photo I've mucked about with (turned the light and colour right up and put a bit of a filter on). The overall colour of this is probably close to that of moth in the field. The lines really did stand out from the background too.

I'll keep my eyes peeled in case it's still hanging about a week later and I'll endeavour to take a better snap.

[meiga]

I would go with Anania verbascalis

[zigzag_wanderer]

Many thanks meiga.

When I was initially skimming through images, I thought Golden Pearl looked the closest, but I talked myself out of it not least because the description mentioned the moth inhabits open heathland and shingle areas, so I thought it might be too much of a "specialist" very locally distributed moth.

But certainly the background colour would be good for Anania verbascalis and I've just looked on the Sussex Moth Group site at this species:

https://www.sussexmothgroup.org.uk/site ... esRef=1480

and the first image on there, does look fairly adjacent in terms of the lines, particularly the "channel" dip on the lowest line.

If so, it would definitely be the least common moth I've spotted at work !