In case you need reminding, this is what happens to a cream tea on a sunny afternoon in England. It wasn't ours, fortunately. The cafe was sensibly using one table for leftovers as a very effective decoy. Not that I mind wasps, usually, and I find the range of variety of deterrents against them fascinating, ranging from sweet-water jars on the Ashmolean rooftop to a fake wasp's nest, like a black balloon, called the Waspinator. None are wholly effective but the battle is interesting for spectators.
Things putter along quietly at the moth trap, meanwhile. Here's a Brimstone moth forming a nice colour contrast with my specimen-examining deckchair, below is that nice little moth a Lime-speck Pug (all the nicer for being distinctice unlike most of its Puggish brethren) and below that, another Brimstone with an Oak Hooktip, considerately snoozing on the transparent (though much-battered) cowl so that I can photograph them from above and below.
I did get a bit excited about this, however: a very curious extrusion from the little hole at the bottom of an eggbox cone. As you can see, the mystery proved to be sadly unmysterious. I am not suffering from the shortage of Large Yellow Underwings reported elsewhere.
What else? A nice Copper Underwing about to take off from my fingers, and the oversized Wax moth micro with its distinctive shape. and ME, about to set off on my marathon row from Oxford to London to raise money for this. No more trapping for a week at least. Wish me luck!
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