The Mother's Year

During this year's blogs, I've been bringing you occasional visits to my garden moth trap to chart how its contents change over the course of a year.

So, back in March, it was dominated by Common Quakers, Hebrew Characters and Early Greys.

By May, I was catching Alder Moths, Nut-tree Tussocks and Small Elephant Hawkmoths.

In July. there were Privet Hawkmoths and Swallow-tailed Moths.

So now, by October, are there any left? Is Moth World still active?

The answer is most definitely 'yes'. The number of moths and number of species per catch may now be tailing off, but yet another cast of characters has taken to the stage. Moths really do tell a story of the changing seasons, with some species that would never get to meet each other because their flight seasons just don't overlap.

Indeed, an expert 'mother' would be able to take the contents of any moth trap and pretty accurately gauge the date. They'd probably ask a sense of geographical location, just to refine their guess, as the further north you are, the later moths tend to emerge, as a general rule.

So, here are some of the characters in my early October moth trap.

This moth I would imagine is present in almost every garden in the country. It is the Large Yellow Underwing.

I can get dozens in one trap overnight. The little black dot towards the end of the wing is diagnostic, even though the pattern on the rest of the long-oblong wing can vary between individuals. The yellow underwing is hidden when resting, but the moth will flash it in warning if it feels threatened, a shock tactic to try and stop itself being eaten.

Many gardens will aloso have these autumn specialities. First the Black Rustic, the blackest moth to darken a trap

...and then the delicately etched Lunar Underwing.

And talking of delicate, I'm also visited by a moth called the Delicate, which is an immigrant and may well be breeding regularly in the south now.

And I now get this new coloniser to the UK, Clancy's Rustic

As well as providing their own natural calendar, moths are, of themselves, amazing creatures. The range of colours and patterns, when you get to see them close up, is incredible. Yes, some - like the Large Yellow Underwing above - are looking very tatty by this stage of the season. But over the course of a year, what a parade you can find in any and every garden.

Their behaviours are intriging, too. In a garden you are likely to have species with wingless females, or adults that have no functional mouthparts because their job is all about procreation, and then moths whose caterpillars feed underwater.

And of course moths are then essential parts of foodchains. The adults provide food for bats and their caterpillars are vital for many garden birds. But their eggs, too, are more important than you think. Those troupes of Long-tailed Tits passing through gardens in winter when there seems so little food for them? They are often grazing on tiny moth eggs on twigs and branches.

Without moths, it would definitely be a much poorer garden world. And with overall numbers on the slide, as with so much in this Nature and Climate Crisis, every thing you can do to help them is a bonus. And it all starts with planting and growing. Trees, shrubs, climbers, flowers, meadows - that's the bedrock to so much in the wildlife-friendly garden.