Mostly Moths 2019

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!

  • Labour suite ... moths for the use of! Lol

  • Gardening today when a lovely fresh Angle Shades landed on my hand ... later on I noticed some eggs on Aquilegia leaves & thought they may be AS eggs ...took pics

    Blow-ups revealed my faux-pas

    Really belongs on insects thread! 

  • Shame about the eggs (whitefly) Wendy! LOL Should have gone to specsavers! Lovely to see an Angleshades though, especially just in the garden.

    Your maternity ward looks pretty full, any news on the Elephant HM?

    I did a trap on Sunday night fairly locally & the thrill of the evening was this lovely Hawkmoth

    It didn't settle & I tried to get photos of it in the grass & then it flew off. I had over 50 species on the night with a rare Large Dagger

    & I know you like green one's & had 2 of these Blotched Emeralds

    & tiniest of the night was this little one Pseudopostega crepusculella

    Despite 2 light showers I kept going until after 01h30!

  • Great haul there H!
    EHM still languishing & thinking about it ... must be a male! Lol
    Labour suite in service last night though ... an emergence around midnight ... late to bed as I waited for wings to inflate, mercifully didn't take long!

    e

    The one from my garden pot discovered by Emily couple of weeks ago!

    Very lively, wouldn't pose nicely on my hand so this shot through plastic lid of butterfly house

  • ***EHM still languishing & thinking about it ... must be a male! Lol***
    Well ... it was a beautiful female waiting in butterfly house this morning ...

    Can see antennae more clearly in this one

    Empty pupal case

    Waiting for Privet HM now but not too hopeful as it is very dry & lightweight!

  • A lovely HM. I've not seen one for ages … and nothing so spectacular from me. A little Brassy Twist from a few days ago … a brilliant name but, as one of those variable moths, it took me ages to work out what it was!

  • That's a beauty Nige & one I've not come across before ... always surprises in this moth game!
  • Not one I've seen Nigel, but very pretty. Good to see your EHM too Wendy, they are fab.

    I met up with a fellow "mother" on hols & we went off to do a trap together. I had to creep back in the campsite at after 2h00!! It was a salt-marsh so lots of interesting moths & of course mothquitoes too. A new familly for me with a Douglasiidae (only a tiddler)

    & a new Hawkmoth for me Spurge Hawkmoth

    a couple of Purple Marbled

    then when I got back I did one at home & had 2 of my favourites "Rhyparia purpurata" no English name

    The traps are going really well now with around 70 species each time & quite a few moths. I had 54 large Yellow Underwing in that one!!

  • Great finds H ... according to Wiki your last moth is known as The Purple Tiger, same family as Garden Tiger & lots of other beautifully marked moths ... so it says???