It is too early to be thinking much about Autumn with the belated Summer sunshine we've enjoyed in the last week, but the moths are beginning to indicate the coming change of season. Red Underwings have been calling for a while now, flashing the warning colouration on their hindwings in the same way as Poplar Hawks - I had both species giving a performance (above) after a little tickling last week.
The Sallow moths are another example, with their range of yellows and pinks, as in the Centre-barred Sallow shown left, brightening up the eggboxes in the same way as the August, September, Dusky and Canary-coloured Thorns which currently visit every night - here's one of the Canary-coloureds below, showing off the reason for its name. As the leaves begin to turn from all their different greens to brown, russet and gold, such colourings make successful camouflage.
Other visitors coming in large numbers include the Light Emerald whose delicate pale green fades very rapidly into a creamy and then almost pure white - the four examples below came on the same night. There are often more in the foliage around the trap, like so many petals, than actually inside. The Burnished Brass with its glinting metallic wing scales and the Common Carpet are also here in force.
Lastly for today, here are some representatives of the main colourways in the trap at the moment, grey and brown but nonetheless beautifully-patterned moths. The distinctive black marks of the first pair show them to be Flounced Rustics, the 'stained glass window tracery' moth is a female Feathered Gothic (the males have feathery antennae) and the final visitor with its wide Italian moustache is a Willow Beauty, a species which abounds this month.
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