Wednesday 18 April 2012

Sparkling water


There was a moth in the trap when I finally got round to investigating yesterday, and it was made more interesting by the rainfall. Although the shield is surprisingly effective (Kevin the electrician said: "They'd never be allowed to sell that" when he first saw it), a little bit of water usually gets inside after an hour or two.



Tucked under the one really damp eggbox was this Clouded Drab, whose dullness was banished by what looked like tiny diamonds on its dull-coloured wings. They were very small dots of moisture accumulated from its surroundings but held on the 'skin' of the scales in the same way that rain fails to penetrate the lanolin-protected fleece of sheep, such as those shown in yesterday's post.

The camera doesn't do the phenomenon justice and I'm afraid that my pictures get blurry in close-up. But here is a section of wing where I hope you can see the moisture it bit more obviously. I went down again an hour or so later and the moth had dried out. Shortly afterwards, it skittered off to a safer home inside a rhododendron bush.

8 comments:

Bennyboymothman said...

Beaded Chestut ;)
Nice photos.

MartinWainwright said...

Is it a Chestnut, Ben? I'm so hopeless at identification. I just looked up the actual Beaded Chestnut but that seems to fly in the autumn, so do you mean that this is a Chestnut beaded with water? All warmest wishes as ever, M

Anonymous said...

Looks like a Lead-coloured Drab to me.
Richard

Billy Dykes said...

The curved wing structure would suite Lead-coloured Drab more than Clouded Drab, but it's quite hard to be sure with it being devoid of markings.

I might be wrong, but I think Ben was making a joke!

Happy mothing, Bill

MartinWainwright said...

Thanks v much everyone, for wisdom and wit. Let's say it's a Lead-coloured Drab, and a beaded one to boot. All v best and as Bill says, happy mothing. Mind you, it's pouring here...

Bennyboymothman said...

Yes sorry beaded as in the beading of water :)
Clouded Drab for me, getting quite late for Lead-coloured now and general overall markings LCD never exhibits this.

Paul said...

I can see it's some kind of fly, but really not sure what it is!


http://electrician.in-bromley-area.co.uk/

MartinWainwright said...

ah thanks v much Ben. I was right after all. this is a very rare event, so I note it

Paul, if I ever move to Bromley, you will be my electrician. Excellently straightforward website name! Alas it isn't a fly, but a moth. Though it can of course fly, so it is a flying thing.

All best all. What a saga...

M