I have written about moth pheromones several times over the years, mostly since I started mothing. Specifically, the chemistry of the sex pheromone produced by the female Emperor moth. Pheromones can be used to attract and trap what some people might refer to as pest species, but they can also be used scientifically just as one uses a UV light to attract moths for local monitoring.
I have a range of pheromones in little vials and soaked into various rubber bungs (they come from the supplier like that), which can be hung outside at various times of year to attract specific species, such as the clearwing moths and the Emperor.
The pheromones can be bought from various suppliers, but Anglia Lepidopteral Supplies (ALS) are the company I’ve used. I’ve had great success every year with the EMP lure, and most of the clearwings as well as a couple of other lures for some less well-known micro moths.
The really interesting thing about pheromone lures is that they’re usually mixtures of various chemicals that the moths produce to attract a mate. As such, some of them also attract non-target species, which home in on one of the other chemicals present, or even the target pheromone if they use the same one themselves. ALS gives its customers a list of dozens of moths that might be by-catch when using a moth pheromone for a particular target species. This week, I hung the CUL lure, which targets the clearwing known as Synanthedon culiciformis, the Large Red-belted Clearwing. I am yet to see this moth in the garden, or indeed anywhere. It’s slightly early for it to be flying, but lots of flora and fauna have been appearing earlier than usual this year, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Within seconds of putting out the lure, I saw a couple of micros approaching. Tiny Nemopogon species as it happens. The only one ALS lists as a putative by-catch for the CUL lure is N. clematella, although the lure can draw in quite a few other species:
Synanthedon myopaeformis (Red-belted Clearwing), Phlogophora meticulosa (Angle Shades), Agnathosia mendicella, Alcis repandata (Mottled Beauty), Pammene aurana, Pammene suspectana, Camptogramma bilineata (Yellow Shell), Coleophora amethystinella, Diaphora mendica (Muslin Moth), Endotricha flammealis, Eudonia mercurella, Glyphipterix simpliciella, Nemapogon clematella, Triaxomera fulvimitrella
I’ve had several of those species to the UV lamp over the years and Red-belted to this lure and its own specific lure.
The Nemapogon species I caught this week, looks most like the Grain Moth (N. granella), but as expert moth ID man, Sean Foote, pointed out it’s most likely to be that species, but impossible to know without doing gen det. It could, for instance, be N. variatella or a dull N. cloacella. Neither of those are mentioned by ALS as putative by-catch. Gen det is beyond me, so technically I should report this moth as Nemopogon agg, i.e. as an aggregrated species only identifiable to genus level without additional information. I have mentioned the catch to the team at ALS to see what they think.