Charlotte and friends

I mentioned Bronte moths a few entries back, and here's a selection. It was very cool last night (British weather...who'd believe we'd just had all that sun), and they came out in their dark coats and bonnets. I think that the top one is a Dark Marble Carpet with small micro-friend (No, no I'm wrong - see wise Comments), and below are two Scalloped Hazels, one called variety Nigra for obvious reasons. These are all the sort of moth which seldom gets a second glance, but if you click on the pics, or indeed meet one in the wild, they are worth studying closely for the intricate patterns.



Carpet moths tend to wake up instantly when you disturb the trap, and flutter off. Bigger ones, such as as the Hazels, can be almost impossible to wake. Here's a Heart and Dart, too, another of this year's new arrivals of a regular. One I featured last year prompted an interesting exchange with the Heart and Dart soap shop in New York.

Do you watch Have I Got News For You? The episode repeated last night was a major triumph for moths. Clive Anderson and Paul Merton got into a whacky riff about brushing them, which is impossible to explain but was lavish publicity. If you scroll down a few posts to the Pale Tussock, you'll see that brushing moths could actually be quite interesting, on pony-grooming lines. If you know Messrs A or M, please tell them. Actually, partly because it's such a nice pink rhododendron in the background, I've added this picture, left, of last week's Pale Tussock to show its brushability. Click on it and take in that left antenna (the one which isn't blurred)!