Jaws

The Shark is an exciting name for a moth and there definitely is something a little menacing about this sleek insect with its angled head 'fin' and slim, grey body. It is a common UK moth but not a very common visitor here; nice to have a change of shape among the eggboxes. There are a number of similar species, mostly very rare, but the Chamomile Shark is close in shape and patterning. Fortunately for duff identifiers like me, it is smaller and flies earlier in the year.

Here it is again from the other side, above, and from above, below - sorry those directions may sound a little more confusing than they are, although also a bit poetical as Anne of Green Gables would no doubt say.

Now to a subject of which I never weary, the loveliness of green in moths.  To my delight, this morning's trap contained a very fresh Common Emerald whose colour, angular wings and delicate chessboard fringe are anything but common in my opinion.

The Blotched Emerald has been back as well and my second picture shows by the Denis Healey-eyebrows antennae that he is a male.

On a subtler part of the green spectrum, here is a lovely Coronet of the dark, greeny-purply type followed by the very different looking white-marked version which is actually the same moth. I think that my fumbling efforts at ID deserve a little sympathy when faced with challengesa such as this.

And a mixture to end up with:  I will have to put the first, worn and super-plain moth on the Upper Thames Moths blog to see if anyone can suggest what it is. Update: Dave Wilton kindly IDs this as a Brown Scallop.

Then we have the tiny Muslin Footman, so completely different from the other Footmen moths.  Partly translucent, this also has a sort of built-in smudging in its patterning which makes any photograph of it look a little blurred which, I promise you, this isn't.  Op Art and dazzle camouflage artists must surely have studied it.

And lastly the rather hefty and brightly coloured micro, the Large Fruit Tree Tortrix or Archips podana.