The Kiwi Enigma – Moth of the Moment

I had a puzzling micro moth in the UV trap a couple of nights ago. It was about 8-9mm long, grey with some well-defined black markings. And, as it was walking about in the moth pot, it did so with its forewings splayed. Very odd. My first thought was that it was perhaps an aberrant Nettle-tap, it had that kind of demeanour, but the colour and the markings were wrong. ObsID was no help. Depending on which phone snap I used, it would tell me a different species every time. I think I had a choice of half a dozen, according to the app, and none of them were right. The enigmatic Trachypepla contritella I turned to my 2008 Manley and scanned through all the micro moth photos. Nothing. With some family groups in mind, I scanned the thumbnails on UKMoths. Again, nothing. So, inevitably I turned to the online moth expert Sean Foote, who very generously will ID any moth on request if given even only a half-decent photo. He was back with an ID very quickly, as always. My moth? Trachypepla…