Two on a hand

I can't resist spending time with the spectacular Hawk moths which arrive at this time of the year, though I doubt that I will beat last year's record of four on one hand and seven altogether - the Privet, Pine, Small Elephant, Elephant, Poplar, Eyed and Lime. So far, the last four have arrived and that is enough for me. I expect the Privet and Small Elephant to put in an appearance; the Pine is less certain but has called by on two of the four years that I have so far light-trapped here.

An agreeable thing about Hawks is that they sleep very soundly in the morning and consequently may be photographed without fear of their fluttering away like the little carpets and similar fragile and apparently more nervous moths. Here are some more pictures of the Eyed one, including its underwing with a saucy slash of pink.

Here's the Poplar Hawk and below it a Figure of 80, showing the reason for its name in the first picture and the fact that it could be known as the Figure of 08 in the second.

More on the Muslin Moth now; although I have rather banged on about it this year, I have completely failed to point out its natty yellow foreleg breeches which add a welcome splash of colour to its appearance. Veritably a Malvolio of moths!

Next we have a pretty little Clouded Silver, a Snout with its long, protruding palps and a strange, silvery-grey moth which I will present to the experts on the Upper Thames Moths Blog. Perhaps it is an unusually large micro.

We now have head-scratching time again; I will sort out the next two later.

And finally a moth which drew the straw's shorter end when it came to both appearance and name: the Turnip. Having said that, I find its curious wing patterns reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphics, especially that little eye, so maybe it has a message for us.