It’s not just birds that are flying around here at the Mull of Galloway. Our moth trap had a bumper haul of 200 moths this week consisting of 20 different species bringing the total records from May up to 38 species including sightings of various day-flying moths such as a humming-bird hawk-moth, six spot burnets and cinnabars.
A few highlights from the most recent trappings include northern eggar, angle shades, map-winged swift, true lovers knot, fox moth, shark and garden tiger.
Photographs from top to bottom: garden tiger, angle shades, map-winged swift
There are also plenty of butterflies that can be seen fluttering about the reserve. Dark green fritillary, common blue, meadow brown, red admiral and small tortoiseshell have all been seen this week.
Photographs: dark green fritillary
And where there are moths and butterflies, there are of course caterpillars! Two easy to identify caterpillars you may see if visiting the Mull are those of the northern eggar and cinnabar.
The distinctive yellow and black striped cinnabar caterpillars are often seen feeding on ragwort, a plant that is toxic to most creatures but the cinnabar caterpillars are able to tolerate and even store the harmful toxins of the ragwort in their own bodies making themselves toxic and extremely unpleasant tasting to anything that tries to eat them. Their distinctive pattern makes them very recognisable to potential predators who, sampling the caterpillars once, know to leave them alone in the future.
Photographs from top to bottom: cinnabar moth and caterpillar
The northern eggar caterpillar is a very large and hairy caterpillar, its hairs act as an irritant, lodging in the throat of anything that tries to eat them.
photographs from top to bottom: northern eggar and caterpillar
From the 19th of July till the 20th of August Butterfly Conservation will be running its Big Butterfly Count and are asking people to help record butterflies in their area as part of a nationwide study to assess how populations are doing.
To find out more about the Big Butterfly Count and get your free identification chart visit Big Butterfly Count