Catching up

The birthday moratorium on moth-trapping gives me time for a bit of a catch-up on moths which I've recently had too little room or time to feature; but no day in moth-infested Oxfordshire passes without a sighting of some sort. The Brimstone Moth above was sleeping inconspicuously on the mellow stone walls of the excellent Falkland Arms at Great Tew where Penny and I plus 94-year-old mum-in-law Dilys had lunch - puddings below.  Be jealous.

The Brimstone looks more obvious on camera than it was to the eye - the brown patch on its right wingtip is almost exactly the same colour, size and shape as a fleck of stone just below. I often wonder how far such things affect a moth's choice of resting place, as per the habit of black-and-white ones in the eggboxes of settling on the barcodes.

Here's another Brimstone back at home, left, under exmination by a Swallowtailed Moth; they often rest with their wings folded over their back -  the 'butterfly position' or half-open like this one. The underwing is more butter than brimstone.

We also saw plenty of moths from a distance in the evening, round the stage lights at the Oxford Shakespeare Company's outdoor production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in Wadham College garden. This runs until 16 August and I really recommend it, specially in the current weather. There is a character in the play called Fenton and one of the many jokes in Gemma Fairlie's imaginative production improves on the Bard by adding the immortal lines from the viral YouTube video of Fenton the dog: 'Fenton! Fenton! Jesus Christ! Fenton..!'

I've had the Bright-line Brown-eye coming to the trap almost every night for weeks. Here is the first of its buddy, the Brown-line Bright Eye. There is a tongue twister to be done here.

And so to the moth backlog which includes some of the Very Annoying Grey Kind with which I'd much appreciate identification help. Update: that help has come - and how! See Comments. I'll just update the captions too. Thanks so much to my expert friends.

 

Any thoughts? A micro maybe? Update: No, it's a Short-cloaked Moth - many thanks to all in Comments btw WT&L call this 'the easiest of the family to recognise, to which I respond with a hollow laugh.

This seems distinctive but I despair of matching it up with pics in Waring, Townsend & Lewington. Is it that dully-named moth, The Grey? Too rare and northern, I fear. Answers much appreciated. Update: Hooray, it's a Common Lutestring - thanks v much to Dave in Comments, as ever.

I think this is a Common or Lesser Common Rustic, though its prominent collar or hood does not appear in WT&L  Update: and that's probably because it's actually a rather dark Coronet - many thanks to Toni in Comments

Meanwhile the sun shines on and can do for ever so far as I am concerned. Tonight, the lamp will shine again too.

A quartet of pretty ones: first a Broken-barred Carpet Update: No, it's a Rivulet - lovely name. Many thanks again to Dave.

Second, the opalesque Mother of Pearl micro

Two Barred Straws obligingly perch on either side of the trap's canopy, giving a view of both top and undersides together

And a female ghost moth.  The male is larger and spectrally all-white

Finally, a couple of moths showing their slips; a Coronet (Update: nope; it's a Poplar Grey, a species which has caught me out before. Many thanks yet again to Dave in Comments) and a Large Yellow Underwing. No sign still of the mass invasion of the latter and related yellow underwings which used to try my patience in Leeds. But at least I can identify them.