Mothing … lots of mothing. And no that isn’t a typo. (nothing)
There’s real beauty in moths!
So it’s deepest darkest lockdown as late spring is merging into summer and I’ve been at home for what seemed like an eon. I needed something to do to keep me sane. Realising my 3 previous attempts to learn guitar had met with abject failure and I’m never going to be a rock star I looked back to nature for inspiration. Here’s my very mothy, and tongue in cheek, adventure (without leaving home).
Firstly, my previous knowledge and experience of moths amounted to evicting those “big flappy beasties” when they are “head butting” the lamp with my long suffering wife flapping just as much. I’d never really stopped to look at them – they look brown and boring! … and then I was lucky enough to attend a moth morning at the reserve run by Mike Pilsworth and our go to “moth lady” volunteer Penny. My interest was peeked! (especially when a cheeky Robin kept stealing moths from the group work table when we weren’t looking). But would it work in my urban garden!
Fast forward almost 12 months and a tiny bit of poor google research later and I was ready to go or so I thought.
Armed with a shiny new moth trap, I got to work (4th July) thinking “it can’t be that difficult”. As dusk fell I popped the trap in the doorway of the garden room and went to bed thinking I’d wake to a trap full of stuff.(I’ll come to the vast array of traps later)
Lesson No. 1 – pick your site … for me near flowers/foliage has worked best especially near the strawberry and raspberry patch.
I had 1 moth in the trap the following morning. Eureka … that’s it, I’m a lepidopterist! (alright all you real lepidopterists you can stop laughing now!). Armed with my trusty mobile phone I fired google up and set to work identifying it – it’s a dogtooth … definitely a dogtooth. It probably wasn’t but I have no evidence! See lesson 3.
Lesson No. 2 – Decent reference books are definitely recommended. After advice I plumbed for Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland Third Edition, Waring P, Townsend M, Lewington M, 2003, Bloomsbury, London, 2017.
They arrive a week later and I’m definitely ready to go, trap deployed and collected check, reference book handy check, note book and pen check! … I open the lid … and half the contents fly out never to be seen again but there’s still a good few! … cracked it … I’m definitely a lepidopterist now!... at least I have a chance I have some decent reference books.
Lesson No. 3 – If you can, take pictures to help identify and record your findings but beware, this is a doubled edged sword.
I used my mobile phone to take pictures. It just so handy and a decent camera phone can get pretty close up. My phone has a pretty good zoom on it too so you can get a real decent size of moth in the frame! Here’s the kicker though – in the moth ID world size is everything and so is colour, shape, time of year, wing pattern, how their wings fold at rest and where you are in the world. Colour and size especially can be very deceiving on a digital picture. That said a decent pic can help confirm or deny an ID especially if it’s a rare or unusual find – sometimes you’ll need proof or the opinion of a real lepidopterist! … or you could ask me … I have the books and everything!
Lesson No. 4 – Accurate record keeping is strongly advised. Don’t just look at the pictures of the moth you’re trying to ID either – read the species accounts too.
Remember lesson no. 3? The one about taking pics to help ID and record your finds – I didn’t take enough pics. That first time of emptying the trap armed with all the gear (and no idea) I recorded a Marsh Moth and didn’t take a picture. It was brown … that’s about all I can remember. It’s there in my records, 12.07.20 Marsh Moth – go to be right I’ve recorded it and everything and besides I’m a lepidopterist now. It must be right !! … or not. I read the species account. Marsh Moths are rare and their habitat is fens, marshy meadows, dune slacks and mature sand dunes. Not in my back yard in the middle of an industrial town! At least if I had a pic I could confirm how wrong I was in my records.
I did manage to take a couple of pics that day.
This is definitely a Buff Ermine. It matches the reference pictures, and the species account. I’m confident, nothing to it … lepidoptery hall of fame here I come. But it can’t be a moth, its far too pretty to be a moth, moths are brown and boring right?
Lesson No. 5 – There’s lots of myths about moths.
Swallow Tailed Moth – what a beauty!
This is just one of the “thorns” It’s around in errr September! … Early thorn moths can be seen in March … and there’s one for August too … guess when you can see them!
Moths can have really obscure and strange names – others have names appropriate to them. This photo goes some way to showing the metallic iridescent but doesn’t really do it justice – it really does look like burnished brass!
Scalloped Oak is common and resident throughout the UK see lesson 2! … reference books make all the difference.
I haven’t got pics of cinnabar or scarlet tiger (yet give me chance!) but this Ruby Tiger moth (bright red underwings) often flies by day too!
I don’t have pics of these 2 little blighters but they are called Common Clothes moth and Case Bearing Clothes moth. It isn’t the males that cause the problem it’s the females, or rather the eggs and larvae that they lay – the larvae feed on keratin in natural fibres. – Google them for pics – and info about how to get rid of them!
Lots of moths are hairy, but there’s usually a very good reason. There’s a few theories around about why moths are so hairy. It may be that the hairs may reduce stickiness or are irritating to attackers – but mostly the hairs help disguise their outline and used as camouflage. Moths aren’t just flamboyant they can be very hard to spot in their habitat.
Rests in and under foliage on the ground.
Imagine trying to spot this “beauty” resting on the bark of a tree.
The Silver Y (called because of the inverted Y shape on its wing) rests in the nooks and crannies of trees.
Resembling a fragment of broken wood the Pale Prominent is common in gardens but loves trees like aspen, poplars and willows which it’s larvae feed on.
The V Pug favours green plants like dog-rose, bramble and mugwort – it’s good to be green!
Lesson 6 – There’s 2 main types of moth – big ones and little ones. Although some of the big ones are smaller than the little ones and some of the little ones are bigger than the big ones. Confused yet?
For the sake of clarity they are called Macro moths, these are generally the larger ones, and Micro moths are the smaller ones. I’ve spent hours looking at pictures of moths in my book and online only to discover I need a second reference book – I went for Field Guide to the Micro Moths of Britain and Ireland, Sterling P, Parsons M, Illustrated by Lewington R, 2012, Bloomsbury, London.
Remember I said size was important? In the moth world it’s definitely true. Micro moths are usually aptly named – some of them are tiny, barely visible to the naked eye and can only be seen through strong optics.
Others are the size of an average little finger nail and some are bigger than 50p piece.
The other thing about micro moths is not many of them have English names. So here goes with a bit of latin!
This Acleris Forsskaleana is from a group of moths called Apple moths. It’s about 6-8mm long – about 1/3 inch in old money.
The Dowdy Plume belongs to the Plume family of moths … all of which stand on their elongated legs and rest their wings at 90 degrees to their body. New species of these continue to be found- I’m still searching … and the lepidopterist hall of fame still awaits!
This is one of the largest “micro moths” at 15-17mm (just over ½ inch). Photographs don’t always capture the beauty – this is one of those cases. It’s wings are have an amazing “mother of pearl” sheen that can only be appreciated in the flesh.
The “Crambus” moths (there’s a lot of them) is the perfect example of zoom on a mobile phone. They all look the same until you see them larger – magnifying glasses are very useful too. These are day flyers too and often disturbed when walking through long grass.
Lesson 7 – Some moths can look like insects e.g. Clearwing moths. Some insects can look like moths!
I caught many cadis flies … and spent a long time looking through 2 reference books to identify this little blighter. It had me confused for ages. It’s not a moth therefore not in the books. This time the internet was useful ! If only to prove I’m not going crazy!
Lesson 8 – Moths are really really important.
There’s many reasons to love moths – they are fantastic food for birds, as are their larvae! They are really important to some of our regular garden birds like blue tits, especially when rearing chicks. As well as providing a valued food source they are also pollinators – like bees they spread the love!
One of my regrets is that I didn’t start trapping moths until midsummer – spring is the perfect time to start!
I know it’s not the right time now to start – but who knows what santa might bring you this year. That essential book or possibly at trap! There’s a warning here – there’s examples online of how to build your own but unless you’re a qualified electrician (or really know what you are doing) steer clear … electricity kills.
I bought mine – for the techies amongst us it a 6w actinic bulb – it comes with proper power supply and batteries. I run it with a rcd as well for extra safety. It’s a bucket design but there’s loads of different ones out there!
I’m definitely not a lepidopterist … that’s pretty evident! But I’m definitely hooked and looking forward to next season. Hopefully, with a little pleading and grovelling, I may be allowed to deploy on the reserve – I hear there are some rare wainscots!
Here’s a couple of useful links to help get you started …
https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-families/family-wild-challenge/activities/amazing-moths/
https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths
Remember the reserve remains closed – details of all RSPB reserve status here :-
https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/stories/coronavirus/reserve-reboot/
Happy mothing everyone!
Daz