Thursday, 14 November 2024

Variety show

 


The nights are getting colder and our late-sown Morning Glory and Cosmos are struggling to bring to flower the buds which they have bravely produced in the last few weeks. I'm finding it similarly tough to keep putting out the moth trap in the hope of a few surprises, especially as the mornings are also pretty dark when it's time for P's and my tea.

However, the arrival of a swept-wing Oak Hook-tip a week ago cheered my outlook and I was intrigued by the almost entirely featureless but dainty moth below. I think that it is one of the Winter/Autumnal/November brethren whose colour and pattern scales are even more indistinct than usual and perhaps mssing scales;  but it is nonetheless gracefully pretty along with its reflection and it had no problem in flying away.


The eggboxes have since maintained at least a show of variety, with below (l-r) a Cypress Carpet, a Sprawler, a Scarce Umber and the dart-shaped micro Udea ferrugalis, also known more appealingly as the Rusty-dot Pearl.


Then we have the iPhone's two takes on Feathered Thorns, a nice Beaded Chestnut and one of a regular series of December moths which do at least look suited to the month with their woolly coats.


Next an unknown type of fly, though my new ID ally the iPhone bug-identifyer suggest Mesembrina merediniana or the Noonday Fly. I will check that out further but accept it for now.  Then we have another Rusty-dot Pearl. and a second example of digital camera colour changes with two Mottled Umbers, the first unusually showing its petticoat underwings.


Lastly, a third and much more isosceles Rusty-dot Pearl, a Light Brown Apple micro, Epiphyas postvittana, and two November/Winter/Autumnals, the first showing its petticoats too, albeit a little more shyly than the Mottled Umber.  Not a bad range in a week as the final month of the year draws closer.

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