When the lights come on again

My long-serving mercury vapour lightbulb went phut about three weeks ago, plunging me as well as the garden into gloom. If you go to entomological suppliers' websites, you will find dire warnings about these bulbs being phased out because of their inefficiency and wastage of resources.

Less specialised lighting companies seem to be less affected by pessimism and I have now got two new bulbs without difficulty from General Lamps whose ordering and despatching is top notch. Two nights ago, I pressed the on switch and the familiar hum from the choke began. Out on the lawn, the new bulb started with the familiar, rather unearthly pink colour and then warmed up to its dazzling full light.

So I am back in action; and that first night brought a good guest-list of predictable mid-March moths. Two of them were the March Moth itself, a species which tends to arrive in the month whose name it bears, unlike other species such as the August and September Thorns which can be promiscuous in their dates.

The second night saw the arrival of the first really attractive moth of the year, the Pine Beauty shown in my first picture.  The Oak Beauty shown in my last post is a fine moth and even the Quakers and Drabs have their discreet charms, but the Pine Beauty is the sort which gives you a thrill when you see it gleaming in the egg boxes. Yes, even after all these years.

Here are the other arrivals - from the top row reading left to right: Common Quaker, Lead-coloured Drab, March Moth, Oak Beauty, Small Quaker, the micro Agonopterix arenella, Twin-spotted Quaker and a pair of Hebrew Characters with their distinctive marking like the Hebrew letter 'Nun'.  I am on the watch for Lead-coloured Drabs which are confusingly like the Clouded ones but the males have distinctive feathered antennae. One of my unusual morning pursuits in the next few days will be tickling suspect examples to see if they are feathered or not.

In the meanwhile I'm hugely indebted to Ben Sale of Herts Moths for ID-ing the Lead-coloured Drab shown in my composite, which I originally took to be Clouded. He can do it without seeing the antennae, but I can't!