Friday, 17 June 2011

Which Kitten - Answer Sallow Kitten

When I caught this, yesterday I thought it was a Poplar Kitten (Furcula bifida), but now I'm not so sure. Is there a definitive way of separating Sallow (Furcula furcula) and Poplar Kittens?
It is a Sallow Kitten.Thanks to Matt (see comments) and Darrel on UKMoths group. It's the first Kitten of the year, and my memory of previous Sallows was of a much more jagged distal line. I guess this is variable and this one is by no means a smooth curve as you would expect with Poplar.


Kitten
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2 comments:

  1. Broom Birder17 June 2011 at 08:17

    Tony- The most reliable way is to look at the trailing edge of the 'saddle'. In Poplar K. the line is a gentle even curve. In Sallow the line is kinked slightly (your picture shows this). Poplar is generally bigger than Sallow, though this is not 100% reliable, also colour variation isn't a cast iron field mark either........

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  2. Tony Morris17 June 2011 at 10:39

    Thanks Matt

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