Saturday, 29 April 2017

Aliens, mothy and Spacey


Two grandchildren and about 30 moths arrived last night. I cannot vouch for the attitude of the latter to the former, but the former were very well-pleased.


As I've remarked before, antennae are the great attribute of the insect which is not given to us humans, and here's a great pair on a male Muslin moth. I had just been reading the granddaughter a story about a space alien with antennae called Q-Pootle-5, so the arrival of the moth was a bonus. You can see the book in the background of my top picture, albeit blurrily.


It was also nice to have a colourful moth in the list of new visitors: this Brimstone above and below, a double-brooded moth which emerges at dusk and may sometimes been seen on the wing in the late afternoon.


A pleasure, too, to have a Lesser Swallow Prominent, below, a moth which is less frequent than its larger and slightly differently-marked relation, the Swallow Prominent.


And finally, an excellent moth for young visitors, the Spectacle, seen below perched on the granddaughter's finger and showing pretty clearly the reason for its name.



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