One of my favourite summer moths has defied the continuing miserable weather (cold when not raining, wet when warm). Here it is: the Single-dotted Wave, which I like on account of its inappropriate name.
If you screw your eyes up, maybe the smudge becomes a single dot. But otherwise the little creature is covered with them. It also has an endearingly finicky diet. In captivity, says my Moth Bible, the caterpillars 'will eat dandelion, preferring withered leaves.'
Well we have plenty of dandelions, both withered and plump. What we don't have is plenty of moths. This morning, there were six Heart and Darts, two Yellow Underwings (one of them shown above with a nice Dark Arches and a slug trail), a Freyer's Pug (below - am I right expert commentors?) and a couple of carpets. Not empty, but not great for a night in June.
If you screw your eyes up, maybe the smudge becomes a single dot. But otherwise the little creature is covered with them. It also has an endearingly finicky diet. In captivity, says my Moth Bible, the caterpillars 'will eat dandelion, preferring withered leaves.'
Well we have plenty of dandelions, both withered and plump. What we don't have is plenty of moths. This morning, there were six Heart and Darts, two Yellow Underwings (one of them shown above with a nice Dark Arches and a slug trail), a Freyer's Pug (below - am I right expert commentors?) and a couple of carpets. Not empty, but not great for a night in June.
3 comments:
must be the time of year as I saw a single dotted wave yesterday as well.
Hardly seen anything else this year, mind
Freyer's Pug looks good to me.
Regards
Dave
Thanks both - specially relieved my pug guess was right, Dave.
It's not a good year is it, though got a little stock of goodies last night.
All warm wishes
Martin
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