Two cheerful arrivals signal the start of sunnier days, I hope: the Brimstone moth and the Green Carpet. Both have been regular visitors during my 18 years of moth-trapping but it is still a delight to greet them after the duller months of Winter.
The Green Carpet by contrast resembles the camouflage fatigues worn by ground troops, or indeed by a surprising number of people, women as well as men, out shopping today. It is a delicate little visitor, very quick to take fright and flutter off from the trap, as happened yesterday morning. There were ten of them inside, however, so I had plenty of second chances to take these pictures.
A further feature of the Brimstone, which is partly a day-flying moth, is that it prefers to be outside the trap rather than nestling in the warmth of the eggboxes. I quite often find them later in the day, still snoozing near to where the trap had been, but overlooked by me on my early morning inspection.
Talking of early morning, there are so many things which make an early rising a pleasure at this time of the year and until the dark returns. One of them is the dew, whose perfect little spheres can be seen in the Brimstone photos.
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| Six of the ten Green Carpets. They have a liking for the bowl's walls |
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