Catching up

The weather and other demands have limited trapping in the last few days, so I have been checking on recent arrivals for moths which I have not featured here. They include this trio of Prominents - Swallow, Pebble and Iron - which all obligingly spread their wings to an extent while at rest, rather than holding them tightly together in the usual position which gives them their characteristic, streamlined profile.

Completely different, we have had a series of virtually tame Red Admiral butterflies seeking out warm, sunlit walls on which to rest. You spot them when they open their wings to bask and thus add a small splash of red to the landscape of grey and honey-coloured stone. This one, however, closed its wings just when I had finally sorted myself to take the picture. The underside is much duller and more camouflaged, but it is still a lovely-looking insect.

The next picture appeals to me as another trio, this time of odd companions: a worn Mother-of-Pearl micro-moth, a Common Carpet and a fine little beetle. Then we have the beige version of the Flounced Rustic which makes a nice change from the more usual darker grey ones, and finally an irresistible Brimstone moth.

I also like this huddle of yellow underwings, a very common sight in the trap at this season, both in numbers and in their habit of cramming into eggbox cones together which would emphatically not appeal to many other, more private, species, judging my the habits which I have observed over the years.

And lastly, harking back to my reference to streamlined Prominents, here is another, much smaller moth which adopts the 'racing car' stance while resting: the micro Evergestis forficalis, known familiarly as the Garden Pebble.