I'm a butterfly really, honest

If there was a competition for the moth which looks most like a butterfly, this dainty little visitor to the trap would win hands down. The Latticed Heath not only rests with wings raised or partly spread out instead of folded flat on its back like most moths, but its colour and patterning resemble butterflies’ such as the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. 

I nearly missed this one, only the second visitor of its type to the light since we moved in 2013, because I was concentrating on the very pretty Scorched Carpet shown later in this post. It was only when I looked at the picture I’d taken of the latter that I saw the Latticed Heath - below. Luckily I hadn’t jogged it with my wrist. 

I have a little container called a Bug Bottle which I use occasionally for moths which I want to check more closely, to avoid the risk of their flying away. I managed to pop the Latticed Heath in and got several more pictures. But it refused to spread its wings, so we will have to be content with these glimpses of the top surface.

There was another  attractive moth asleep on the cowl whose transparency allowed me to make a definite ID: a Lesser Treble Lines Update: whoops, carried away by doing this on my iPhone, I got muddled as my kindly and very thorough Commentor says. I meant Lesser Treble-bar. With my ineptness over getting moths right, I have never been able to distinguish between this species and the simple Treble Lines Update: Treble-bar. Today I could, thanks to being able to see its underside - second picture below:

The helpful illustration on the Moth Bible shows clearly which of the two it is. Hooray! And please don’t anyone prove me wrong.

There was however a second similar moth on an egg box in the trap whose nether regions could not be seen. So that has to remain an either/or. 

 

Here now is the Scorched Carpet, a beautiful moth even though its name evokes childhood accidents after playing with fireworks or matches. It too obliged with its underwings. 

During all these goings-on around the cowl, a bright little Orange Swift got on to the outside of the Bug Box but I had one more interesting visitor resting on the transparent section. This finely-shaped moth is a Pebble Hook-tip. I couldn’t see its underwing because, like many moths before it, it had chosen the rough, heavily-Sellotaped section of the plastic where cracks have been badly repaired (by me). Whether these are easier to grip or more reassuring in possible camouflage terms, I have yet to discover. Or there may be another reason altogether. 

A few more arrivals to go on this post which incidentally is the first I have written on my iPhone. I only discovered today that this was possible and the app is extremely handy and user-friendly. First a Tawny Speckled Pug spp fulvata, the commonest variation of the species in the UK:

Then the micro Agriphila tristella  - but what is that little green thing in the background? 

Aha! It’s a caterpillar which one day will turn into an Angle Shades moth; a very ordinary looking larva for an adult insect whose raked wings are unusual and dramatic.  Update: thanks again to my commentor who doubts this and makes other sensible ID suggestions. I will follow them up shortly.

Almost there now; just two sides - or rather the side and top - of Agapeta hamana whose size and distinctive banana milkshake colouring assure it of a welcome in our garden. 

Then we’ve another rather appealing micro which I’ll have to ID later and finally a Buff Footman which preferred the gloom of a neighbouring walnut tree’s trunk. Update: my commentor's third kindly act is to suggest that the micro is either Monopis laevigella (the Skin Moth) or its relative Monopis weaverella, both of which look likely and both of which, though common, would be new for me. From the size of the cream blob on the 'ridge' formed by the moth's wings, I would go for weaverella. The caterpillars of both these moths live on 'foodstuffs of animal origin' including carcasses and pooh. Yuk!