Well here goes, for better or worse, another year of moths. The old thread is here https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/196070/mostly-moths-2018/1221500#1221500
To start us off a couple of silly ones that came to greet the first trap of the year on the night of the 1st to 2nd january. It was around 6-7°C all night & frosts ever since so I gave it a go.
A Double-striped Pug
& same one closed
& White Speck
Nothing earth-shattering, but a start!
Best wishes
Hazel in the Gironde estuary, France
You want to bookmark the thread Hazel to find it easier later.
My Flickr photos
In reply to Alan:
Alan said:You want to bookmark the thread Hazel to find it easier later.
Thanks Alan, I'll give that system a try & have tried the quote again, I think it's worked now!!
EDIT : Yesssssss!
Nice one.
In reply to Noisette:
Yippee H ... hope to be posting soon!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
My latest incumbent brought to me on Saturday by neighbour who found it in the roadway ... looks like Privet Hawk Moth, right size & has that hook, will overwinter in shed & see what emerges ...
I do like getting these surprise presents! Lol
In reply to WendyBartter:
You never know for sure either what will come out, that may be a suprise too. It's certainly big, I wonder if someone was carting away garden waste & it fell off the trailer. It's odd to be in the road otherwise.
Noisette said:carting away garden waste & it fell off the trailer. It's odd to be in the road otherwise.
Because the quarry is a mobile home site we all have combined path/roadway outside front gardens ... I know that some privet hedge trimming has recently been carried out towards the top so HM's leaf litter could well have been disturbed! The neighbour who found it is the same guy who brought me the Elephant HM caterpillar a couple of years ago which successfully pupated & overwintered in shed til it emerged following April/May!
I can remember in our first house over here, over 25 years ago, that we witnessed the Privet Hawk Moths emerging out of the lawn, (which had been a field til we mowed it). I've looked it up & the book says they pupate deep in the soil, so it must have been some kind of deep diggings or groundworks going on. Some dead bushes being dug up? From the photo it certainly looks right for PHM.
Noisette said:Some dead bushes being dug up?
I shall have to make some enquiries H!
5 species this morning in & around the moth trap, nothing amazing but a new pale Brindled Beauty
a probable Acleris schalleriana
& a probable Depressaria daucella
finally Eudonia angustea
It's been a slow start to the year & it was only 8°C last night, so I was pleased to get something anyway!