On cue; a friendly moth

My species list for 2017 has crept up to four, thanks to Paul Hopkins' knowledgable comment on my last post, plus the arrival of a March moth two nights ago.  This was my first trapping session for March so its appearance was timely, and also welcome since we had a friend staying overnight who was interested to see how moth trapping worked.

The familiar isosceles triangle shape of the moth was the only inhabitant of the eggboxes, following a night which turned out to be colder than the temperature suggested at dusk. After examining it and admiring the camouflage effects of its modest colouring and slightly dazzle-y pattern, we released it in the garden and bade it farewell.

Note how the 'Dazzle-y' zigzags break up the wing pattern, specially on the right

Last night, however, eagle-eyed Penny retained her long-standing title as Top-spotter of Indoor Moths by drawing my attention to this - pic below - on the kitchen ceiling.  When we went to bed some hours later, there on the bedroom ceiling was another one (or possibly the same one, if it was of an exploring bent).

I would be very surprised if these indoor March moths, or moth, were the same as the one we released outdoors. So the moral is, that I should look more closely when I examine the contents of the trap (which I had brought into the kitchen so that we could examine its contents out of the rain).

The March moth, incidentally, is another of the species - mostly winter-flying - whose females are flightless and spend their short lives scaling tree trunks while emitting pheremones which invariably attracts mates. And so life goes on.

Many thanks to Montgomery Moths for this pic of a female, which I have never seen