Hoary Footman Eilema caniola

This species was first recorded in Norfolk in 2021 but there have been numerous claims or suspected examples. I've caught a few very pale Scarce Footmen which I've wondered about, and some of them even seemed to have quite whitish hindwings, but they all proved to be Scarce Footmen on dissection. I've been passed a couple of specimens for checking that the people who caught them believed to be Hoary, but again they were Scarce on dissection. When Laura sent me her photos of this one I felt much more optimistic, and when I saw the specimen I was amazed how distinctive it appeared.

This individual was trapped by Laura King and looked quite unlike any Scarce Footman I have ever seen. Firstly the wings were pale silvery, contrasting with the yellowy foreparts like a male Ghost Moth. The yellow seemed to extend further back across the head than on Scarce Footman, and a short distance down the sides of the wings. This made me consider Buff Footman, but the shape (and colour) was all wrong and the broad yellow didn't extend so far down the wings. The wings weren't rolled in so tightly as they normally are on Scarce Footman (though more so than on, say, Common Footman) and the moth was noticeably small - so much so that when Dave N saw it we had a discussion about whether it could be Pigmy Footman. Examination of the genitalia appear to confirm that it is a Hoary Footman, the first for the vice county. I have not been able to find any images or descriptions of female Pigmy Footman genitalia, so in the event that these have similar genitalia then that species is only eliminated on external characters - I think these are clear enough.

female Hoary Footman Eilema caniola showing the genitalia (the penultimate image being a close-up of the single signum in the corpus bursae), Lower Hellesdon (Norfolk, UK), 6th September 2022

The following year Laura found another in the same place in her garden, raising the possibility that they might be breeding there. Again it was a distinctive, almost silvery-white despite being fresh, though I didn't find it so obviously small this time. The hindwings were pale yellow, paler and whiter than they would be on a fresh Scarce but I remain of the view that too much importance is placed on the hindwing colour - both species are yellow when fresh and almost white when worn, and a worn Scarce can be paler and whiter than a fresh Hoary. Again the genitalia removed any doubt over the ID. This was an egg-laying female.

female Hoary Footman Eilema caniola showing hindwing and genitalia (the last image being a close-up of the single signum in the corpus bursae), Lower Hellesdon (Norfolk, UK), 23rd August 2023

Laura took the eggs back with her and released the caterpillars in her garden, however the moth continued to lay eggs in the pot after she had gone. Here's one of the first instar caterpillars that emerged a couple of weeks later.

Hoary Footman Eilema caniola caterpillar, 7th September 2023, emerged from eggs laid by above female caught at Lower Hellesdon (Norfolk, UK) on 23rd August 2023