Our warm, early Spring is bringing in two types of moth: newly-hatched ones, for whom 2012 is their first (and in most cases only) year; and bedraggled veterans of autumn, staggering out of hibernation like students following a heavy night out. This worn-looking creature seemed to be one of the latter; but in fact it's a Dotted Border, a species which takes wing for the first time in February, with occasional bold individuals hatching from December onwards.
Perhaps this is one of those. Certainly it is male because the female is one of the curious beetle-like variety described in a couple of posts last week, one here and the other one here. At least she has slightly more of an attempt at wings, but I'd still rather see than be one. Here she is, above, courtesy of the Moth Bible.
One of the newly-hatched varieties at this time of the year is a completely different matter: the handsome Early Grey which excited me a couple of years ago when, as my trapping crept back earlier, I saw one for the first time. I made the obvious joke about tea in the post at the time, so won't repeat it now. But there will be plenty more of them over the next few weeks.
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