Bring on the Robots

This isn't the most exciting time of year for the moth enthusiast to say the least, but there has been one extremely interesting development in my own small world. For reasons of age and technological incomprehension, I have been slow to update the system on my iPhone and therefore have only just started using its wonderful animal-identifying facility which brings up this handy little icon when you photograph a butterfly, moth or other bug.

I'd got used to using the 'phone's plant identifier which worked the same system with a little icon of a flower, but was amazed and jealous when my sons showed me the ladybird one and I couldn't access it on my 'phone. This led to the long overdue upgrade and now I can. And it is a real help with my perennial challenge of how to identify the 'brown and boring' types of UK moth.

Here's an example from this morning when a drizzly night produced a typically meagre catch with only Red-green Carpets standing out amid the tired old Large Yellow Underwings, a battered Lunar Underwing and some Daddy Long-legs. There was one other moth, below, which I suspected of being a Red-line Quaker but wasn't sure. The auto-bug identifyer on the 'phone confirmed my guess.

As with all Artificial Intelligence, the system is only as good as the data fed into it and there is always room for improvement, which I am sure is going on. I asked the experts on the Upper Thames Moths blog what they thought and you can enjoy their answers here  Clearly, caution is needed with a robot which can mistake a moth (admittedly a rare one) for a lizard! But as Dave Wilton, the blogmaster at UTM suggests, the important thing is to recognise the limitations.

I sent the composites of recent moths below to the UTM blog with the iPhone's suggestions which were: Willow Beauty, Willow Beauty (underwing), Lunar Underwing, Straw Underwing/Clouded Drab (though I was sure that this was a Deep-brown Dart, Double Square-spot, Archips podana, White-point, Square-spot Rustic and another Lunar Underwing.  Then in the second batch, Pale Mottled Willow, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Square-spot Rustic and a third Lunar Underwing.

The AI made two bad errors in the first composite; I was right about Deep-brown Dart and the Double Square-spot was an Autumnal Rustic, a very familiar moth which even I can ID. But the overall score was not bad and I would have had trouble on my own with Pale Mottled Willow and several of the others. 

I did a final check when news broke on UTM of a rare arrival called Porter's Rustic which I certainly wouldn't have known if it had landed here. The robot couldn't make sense of the first two pictures from the UTM blog below, but included Porter's in its three suggestions for the final - and much clearer - photo.  So in general, hurray!

Here are a couple of today's Red-green Carpets as an escape from brown and dulldom, one with its perky tail in the air which must be as much of a 'Come and Get Me!' as it looks:

Here's a shy Black Rustic, too, a species which hasn't been abundant this year, plus two looks at a sadly dead Lunar Underwing which show a little more bodily detail than is usually possible with a live one:

Good news meanwhile from the magazine Wizz! Pop! Bang! which describes itself as the Awesome Science Magazine for Kids and has instructions in the current issue on making your own moth trap. This is very commendable but I wouldn't suggest it myself in late October when the chances of disappointment are high. They ran it as part of a Hallowe'eny focus on the dark and night-time. Still, it's getting a little warmer, so here's hoping for any awesome science kid who has a go.

A more profitable exercise in entomology over the coming half-term might be searching the cabbage patch for Large and Small White caterpillars. I have no time for these myself, but anything bug-like and a little out of the usual is always exciting for a child to find.

Now here's a puzzle for you. Follow these pictures slowly through to find out which insect we are looking at and where it has perched. No cheating...

Look carefully...

Aha! Got the insect. But the background?

A bit sculptural?

Indeed! The bust of Churchill at Blenheim Palace was nice and warm in the sunshine and attracted one of the many Red Admirals we've enjoyed this year. In spite of media headlines, it's not been at all bad for butterflies and here is a recent Brimstone in such good condition that it must be a third or even fourth generation of the butterfly which first appeared in our garden in early April.

And finally... A couple of insecty references in other and unrelated parts of the world and a lovely Morning Glory and blackberries which welcomed us home from Italy.