Thursday 10 October 2013

Brrr...




The temperature has dropped sharply, as predicted - hats off to the Met Office - and although this morning has brought a clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine, the trap was markedly less busy last night. Beaded Chestnuts predominate again, with a couple of Blair's Shoulder-knots and a Wainscot to add variety, but we are probably moving into sparser times.


That said, the micro Acleris ferrugana at the top is a very lovely creature, and it's nice to have an Angle Shades again, to illustrate the point I made two posts ago about their conventional pose; my picture above is a typical example. The unique wing shape is not the only distinction of this fine moth; look more closely at the blow-up to see the range and subtlety of its colouring.


To conclude: Penny noticed this curious growth on our magnolia - suggestive of several things including those rather unpleasant exhibitions of human corpses minus skin which toured the UK last year. Anyone know what this is, or what causes it?

4 comments:

worm said...

Hi martin I hope you are well - the bumpy excrescence on the magnolia is a seed pod

Anonymous said...

Brr indeed. Putting the moth box out tonight as no uni tomorrow, but not expecting much considering it's brass monkeys here. Lovely Angle Shades :-)

MartinWainwright said...

Hi Worm! Good to hear from you and thanks v much for magnolia expertise. Retirement is pure bliss though I shouldn't say that to those still in chains.

Good luck CT I've finally puzzled out your Merveille de Jour initials, you'll be glad to hear. I longbfornone of those

All warmest

M

Anonymous said...

Tee Hee. I just do it to keep your retirement brain cells active. :-)