There's an autumnal feel to the world this morning. Our Indian Summer seems to be ending and events in Washington don't exactly put Spring in the step. So here's a selection of Autumn colours in this Gatekeeper enjoying a late ragwort. I was in Buttermere last week, and much the same palette was wonderfully set out on a grander scale - the russet of dead bracken, the straw of dead grass and the vivid green of the meadows, with the giants of High Stile, High Crag and Red Pike caught in evening sunshine in the manner of this butterfly's wings.
Here too, is a symbolic moth for the day, which visited the trap earlier this summer. I don't know what it is. It doesn't seem to be in my moth book and I therefore suspect that it's a micro. But the distinct little symbol on its wings looks much like a Fingers Crossed. Stop Press: See Martin Harvey's expert comment.
3 comments:
I like the 'Fingers Crossed Moth' as a name for this one - it is a micro-moth, in the family Pyralidae and subfamily Scopariinae, but beyond that it gets more difficult. It looks to me like species Dipleurina lacustrata, but that shouldn't really be out this late in the year, and in any case identifying this group of moths from photos is fraught with uncertainty. But it's something closely related to that.
Martin
Martin Harvey
Hi again Martin - is that you in the picture, studying an enormnous diagram of a micro moth.
It will be the one you mention I think, cos (and I should have said this and will add it shortly) the pic was taken by me earlier this summer - will check when, when back at the home computer
Thanks v much. Once I stop the daily item (soon) I'm going to go back through the various moths I haven't identified and see if I (or you or other expert browsers) can help
all v best
M
"is that you in the picture, studying an enormnous diagram of a micro moth"
Yes it's me, the back of my head is my best side and this was the nearest photo I could get to it. Would be fun to set up a photo where I am studying an enormous diagram of a tiny insect, but in this one I'm studying a tray of caterpillars that I hoovered up with a vacuum sampler during a moth survey on the Isle of Wight, as one does.
Cheers,
Martin
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