Thursday 7 June 2018

Sanguine


I met someone with rhesus negative blood this week and got to discussing the breeding experiments with Swallowtail butterflies which helped the late Professor Sir Cyril Clarke, an eminent entomologist as well as doctor and medical researcher,  to solve the problem of 'blue babies'. Clarke remained fascinated by butterfly genetics until his death in 2000 and I am sure that he would always have appreciated the moth above.

It is a Blood-vein, named for obvious reasons; a common but delightful visitor to my trap is are the  twig (or cigar-stub)-like Buff Tip and the Gold Spot below. Below them is the only moth that I have ever denounced as too common, my first Large Yellow Underwing of 2018.




Finally for today, the advance of Summer means that the delicate Waves in their Laura Ashley outfits are starting to appear. This is a Common Wave but very beautiful for all that. Below it is a moth whose dignified patterning always appeals to me though I am never entirely certain about its identity. But I am fairly confident that it is a Light Arches. Update: as always, I am wrong and this time on both counts. The penultimate moth is a Common White Wave and the final one a Large Nutmeg - thanks so much to Richard in Comments.


2 comments:

RJB said...

Hi Martin,
A nice haul there. The last two moths are Common White Wave (straight cross-lines) and Large Nutmeg.
Richard

Martin Wainwright said...

Ah, thanks very much Richard. I've just confessed to my hopelessness in today's post and thanked people such as yourself who put me right so kindly. It's MUCH appreciated! All v best M