We thought these two comparative photographs might be useful. The Mottled Grey picture taken on the earlier date of 14.02.15 and the Early Tooth-striped this morning.
We went on a course to Scotland with David Brown four years ago and there was much discussion on how to tell the differences between these two moths. John Knowler, a Scottish County Moth Recorder was also present. They said first of all look at the shape. The Mottled Grey is triangular and the Early Tooth-striped arrowhead-shaped as demonstrated in these photos.
The Mottled Grey is shiny when fresh, has chequered veins on the fore-wing and there are chevron markings on the distal cross line. The male MG has bi-pectinate antennae whereas in the male ETS the antennae are straight strands. As you know MG emerges slightly earlier but their flight periods overlap!
Carolyn & Evan
That's really useful, I've learnt something. The feature I mostly use is the main vein that runs through the centre of the forewing, shows as a broken black line in ETS and not in the MG. You can see it on the right hand wing above and also on Liz's image from another posting.
ReplyDeleteI used this today to help confirm ETS - very useful, thanks!
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