Speckled Bugloss Moth Tinagma ocnerostomella

An earlier attempt to assign vernacular names to micro moths called this Bugloss Spear-wing.

This is a nationally scarce moth that feeds on Viper's Bugloss. In Norfolk it's mainly known from the Brecks although there are a small number of records from the Snettisham area and a couple from SE Norfolk, as well as an isolated record from Litcham. Apart from three old records all Norfolk records have been since 2013 (information from Norfolk Moths website).

I am not aware of any Viper's Bugloss growing in North Elmham so this was not a species I was expecting to encounter in my garden. When I saw this in an eggbox in my moth trap I initially thought it was one of the grey Coleophora species but on closer inspection it was quickly obvious that it was in fact this distinctive species.

Speckled Bugloss Moth Tinagma ocnerostomella, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 6th June 2025

Remarkably I caught another one almost exactly a year later. That makes me think they're more likely to have come from an unknown local population rather than having wandered up from the Brecks. I still haven't found any Viper's Bugloss in North Elmham, but there might be some somewhere (I know it grows less than 4 miles away).

Speckled Bugloss Moth Tinagma ocnerostomella, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 7th June 2026