What with one thing and another (one thing being our granddaughter, the other our grandson), I am late in recording the year's first hawk moth appearance, above. This fine Poplar Hawk spent the night with us on Thursday/Friday last week, May 2nd/3rd, along with its tiny companion, the minuscule but very pretty Least Dark Arches. This is five nights earlier than last year, four nights earlier than 2017 and a full ten nights earlier than in 2016. Is this yet another tiny morsel to add to the growing concern about global warming?
Other arrivals just before and during the Bank Holiday weekend included the quartet above - from the top left clockwise; Frosted Green, Flame Shoulder, Shuttle-shape Dart and a battered Brindled Beauty. Below is the Malvolio of the moth world, the deceptively plain Muslin Moth whose magpie-striped legs reveal fine yellow breeches.
Finally, it was interesting to find a Campion in the eggboxes, a moth which is supposed to make its debut in late May. Another morsel, maybe?
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