Good Housekeeping

Sorry, a rather boring post this morning, unless you are a species distribution monitor. I've found a nice picture of a Common Carpet on some pondweed to top it, but I need a list of the moths (and butterflies) that we've seen here, for reference. Mind you, the names are often as lovely as the moths, as others have often remarked. So maybe there's something poetic about it. Here we go:

Butterflies

Brimstone, Comma, Common Blue, Gatekeeper, Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Large Skipper, Large White, Meadow Brown, Orange Tip, Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Speckled Wood, Wall butterfly, White-letter Hairstreak

Moths

Alder, Angle Shades, Angle-striped Sallow, Antler, August Thorn, Barred Red, Beautiful Golden Y, Black Rustic, Blair’s Shoulder Knot, Bloodvein, Bordered White, Bright-line Brown-eye, Brimstone, Brindled Green, Brown China Mark, Buff Arches, Buff Ermine, Buff Footman, Buff Tip, Burnished Brass, Centre-barred Sallow, Chimney Sweeper, Cinnabar, Clouded Border, Clouded-bordered Brindle, Clouded Silver, Common Carpet, Common Emerald, Common Footman, Common Marbled Carpet, Common (and/or Lesser Common) Rustic. Common Swift, Common Wainscot, Common Wave, Common White Wave, Common Yellow Underwing, Copper Underwing and/or Svensson’s C.U., Coxcomb Prominent, Cream Wave, Crescent, Dark Arches, Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet, Dark Brocade, Dark Dagger, Dark Marble Carpet, Dot, Dun-bar, Dusky Brocade, Dusky Thorn, Early Grey, Early Thorn, Elephant Hawk, Engrailed, Fan-foot, Figure of 80, Flame, Flame Carpet, Flame Shoulder, Flounced Rustic, Foxglove Pug, Frosted Orange, Garden Carpet, Ghost, Gold Spangle, Gold Spot, Golden Y, Gothic, Green Arches, Green Carpet, Green Pug, Green Silver Lines, Grey Dagger, Grey Scalloped Bar, Heart and Dart, Herald, Ingrailed Clay, Iron Prominent, July Highflyer, Knot Grass, Large Emerald, Large Yellow Underwing, Lead-coloured Drab, Lempke’s Gold Spot, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, Lesser Swallow Prominent, Light Emerald, Lime Hawk, Lunar Underwing, Marble Beauty, Marbled Minor, Micros: Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix, Catopria margaritella, Dipleurina lacustrata, assorted Ermines, Garden Rose Tortrix, Mother of Pearl, Plume (Stenophilia sp.), Pyrausta aurata, Scoparia ambigualis, Twenty plume, Miller, Mottled Beauty, Mottled Rustic, Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet, Oak Hooktip, Orange Swift, Orange Underwing, Pale Prominent, Pale-shouldered Brocade, Pale Tussock (include dark variety), Peach Blossom, Pebble Hook Tip, Peppered (include melanistic variety), Phoenix, Pink-barred Sallow, Plain Golden Y, Poplar Hawk, Purple Bar, Purple Thorn, Red Underwing, Red-green Carpet, Riband Wave, Rivulet, Rosy Rustic, Ruby Tiger, Rufous Minor, Sallow, Satin Beauty, Scalloped Hazel (include variety nigra), Scalloped Oak, Scarce Silver Lines, Scorched Wing, September Thorn, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Shaded Broad-bar, Shoulder-striped Wainscot, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Silver Y, Slender Brindle, Small Angle Shades, Small Fan-footed Wave, Small Magpie, Small Phoenix, Smoky Wainscot, Smoky Wave, Snout, Spectacled, Square-spot Rustic, Straw Dot, Swallow Prominent, Swallowtailed, Treble Bar, True Lover’s Knot, V-pug (and many other pugs), White Ermine, White-line Dart, Willow Beauty, Yellow-line Quaker.

That makes 19 butterflies and 158 moths I think, although I am not very good at counting. Add in the number of micros, pugs and confusingly similar brown or grey moths which I have not been able to identify, and I think that we can claim over 200 different types. New ones keep arriving, which shows the enormous wealth of Leeds' (and the country's) hidden, nocturnal life.