We are doing a moth survey from of our garden this year for a study in the département, but while waiting for the moth traps to arrive I've been leaving an outside light on & photographing all the visitors. Since then I decided to start the "sugar trap". I cooked up a litre of cheap wine & 1 Kg of sugar & put 2 natural ropes in the mixture & left to soak for a few days.
Then last night I suspended the ropes between 2 trees in the orchard (photo taken this morning)
Then while Ron was watching the Golf on TV, I was nipping in & out to see if there were any moths having a tipple. The first time I went out there were 2 who stayed until I went to bed & were gone at 5am when I went out to see if there were any more. I was really chuffed as I didn't think I'd get much.
This is a Herald :
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This is Angle Shades
You can see they are both eating, I only hope they didn't have a hangover this morning!! I've left the ropes out so maybe I'll get something else tonight.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
Wendy : I knew you'd like the white one's! The 2nd was so beautiful, amazing!I've thought about coming back & doing traps after I move & sleeping in the camper, the new owners are 2nd homers & so won't be here. As long as they can spare a bit of electricity! However I'll start at the new house too.
Aiki : It's been great fun doing it all, but I have so much to learn about them, I wish I'd started 30 years ago, but better late than never. Perhaps some of my photos may end up in a future guide written by our leader!
fantastic thread Hazel - some really gorgeous moths - well done!
see my photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/maggyn/
A fantastic set once again Hazel. It seems that there's a limitless supply of different moth species - there seem to be far more than the better known butterflies - guess nocturnal living has distinct evolutionary advantages!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Hazel, I've been catching up on your thread and congrats on 300 species of Moths, the photos are just beautiful and interesting. It's a fantastic achievement combined with enormous help to the recorders, I certainly hope to see some of your photos in future guides.
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Regards, Hazel
Thanks all for your comments, I'm going off air now for a few weeks, we're moving on Monday & won't have any internet for ages, & probably no time to look at it either.
Take care all!
Hope the move goes well for you, Hazel. See you in three weeks or so.
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Good luck with moving home Hazel, make sure you unpack the kettle first lol take care and look forward to seeing you back on here once you get your new home/ internet sorted :)
ditto...and thanks again for rekindling my interest in moths.
Do enlighten us as to which huge variety this is EB? Must be Gaelic, looks like it has it's own tartan!!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Poplar Hawk-moth,Wendy. Taken earlier this year.It`s just about the end of the moth season here.