Narcissus

Trying to photograph an insect on a window is always tricky in my experience because the focus struggles to centre on the small creature rather than the vast background beyond. That was happening with this unusual wasp until I had the idea of trying to get it from one side. Bingo! And what an interesting, if misleading, image of an insect fascinated like Narcissus in Ancient Greece by its own reflection.

Mind you, it may have been able to detect and be scared or aroused by the reverse image. That happened to us years ago in Leeds when a Goldcrest bird was outraged at its reflection in one of our bedroom windows and raised its crest in furious challenge, cheeping and beating its wings. Of course, its reflection matched it blow for blow and the battle between bird and phantom when on for quite a long time.

The moths are a little run-of-the-mill at the moment but were varied enough to entertain a great-niece, shown examining a Bulrush Wainscot below:

Other arrivals have included the micros Apomyelois bistriatella and Blastobasis adustella below. Interestingly, for those of us who find the Linnaean combination of Latin and Greek tedious, such moths are increasingly also identified on iRecord by vernacular English names, in these cases the Heath Knot-horn and the Furness Dowd. I am trying to find out who is behind this excellent development. I appreciate that international scientists need a common language to avoid confusion but I am not an international scientist.

Both the above were clocked by my tremendously labour-saving Bug ID on my iPhone. I use it with due caution but it has a very high accuracy rate. The little chap below, however, defied its powers and I have no idea what it is. Lots of its kind are coming to the light at the moment.

A much more impressive moth is being sighted by many friends at the moment, the Jersey Tiger which is spreading happily through the UK. The one shown is temporarily living in a friend's shed in Essex - and attracting compnay. Yesterday he saw two. 

The Poplar Hawk moth is still appearing almost nightly in the trap, a terrific run going right back to late May.  But for the first time in quite a while, I have not had a Pine Hawk here. Yet.

The effect of a long season is clear on this very faded Nut-tree Tussock

And here's another member of the Prominent family which has been active lately: the Lesser Swallow Prominent with its racing car lines.

Among the butterflies, the Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown is a huge success story this year. They are everywhere.

And to finish with, here's an American Signal Crayfish in a friend's garden. These are pests and you are not only allowed to fish for them but encouraged to. We must have a go some time.

Fun in the sun

 

Our first sunflower of the year coincided with the first visit of a Magpie Moth - probably the only visit judging by previous years when it has contented itself with just one night's stay. It has a lovely magpie pattern with a little added gold which made the sunflower an excellent spot for a photo session.

The colour mix appears to have an element of op-art or dazzle camouflage combined with a lassic warning palette, the latter with good reason. The species' caterpillars eat plants such as gooseberry, ragwort and various sorts of currant which make them poisonous to birds. There are witnessed cases of spiders catching Magpie moths but then ignoring them after sensing the toxins in time.

Another striking overnighter this week was this Gypsy Moth, a species which has prospered in the UK in recent years, not to everyone's satisfaction. Its caterpillars are as hungry as the ones in the famous children's book but differ in that, instead of a wonderfully varied diet, they home in on trees, defoliating and ultimately weakening or even killing them.

As a moth enthusiast, I am swayed in the opposite direction by the insect's impressive size and fine if sober patternins and colours. You can measure it roughly below by comparing it with the nearby Common Footman.

Or with my dressing gown, below, to which it took a liking after getting bored with the sunflower.

The eggboxes also contained the very fresh and handsome Coronet in my next picture as well as the Garden Pebble micro, Evergestis forficalis, which follows. 

Finally here are two non-moth overnighters: a Roesel's Bush Cricket with its amazing jumping legs and a hornet, menacing but as placid as a lamb.

Prominent guests

 

The Prominent family of moths are, well, prominent among overnighters in the eggboxes at the moment. Here are three of them together in a Summery setting - in descending order: Coxcomb, Iron and Pebble. The name comes from tufts of hair on wing scales near the trailing edge which stick up when the moths are at rest.  Googling just now, I find that I was passing this information on way back in May 2011 when I wrote in a similar post to this one: 

'The 'prominent' name comes from tufts on the adult moth and humps on the caterpillars of the species, which are also renowned for their fierce ways. All poisonous, their defences include rearing up at both ends and 'spitting' a stream of liquid several centimetres. Just like various children I have known.'

Here they are again, below, with my new weapon against hungry birds at breakfast-time, Taco the cat which we are housing. He makes the occasional indolent and ineffective swipe at departing moths but the robins and blackbirds keep well away.

Other recent arrivals include the dainty V-pug below in two poses, the left one showing the distinctive Vs, and the year's first Copper Underwing, a notoriously jittery moth which scoots around the eggboxes at high speed when disturbed. One of them obligingly perched on the trap's transparent cowl so you can see its underneath, but they very seldom expose the top of the hindwings which gives them, and the indistinguishably similar Svensson's Copper Underwing their name.

Another pleasantly green arrival has been the Tree-lichen Beauty, a subtly patterned and coloured small moth which turns up regularly here in mid-Summer.

Away from the moths, I have had some lovely, sunny times prospecting for butterflies and managed to find an unusually patient Common Blue in the Trap Grounds nature reserve close to the centre of Oxford where plenty of these little jewels were jinking around. It is common but its loveliness is exceotional, both below and above - the latter a view which it generously allows, unlike Holly Blues which almost always keep their wings tightly clasped together when at rest. They have an equally beautiful azure blue on their topwings which I have only ever seen a couple of times.

I also found a fine Lesser Stag Beetle underneath one of our doorstops which might have given Penny or the grandchildren a surprise.

Burning bright

The glow of The Ruby Tiger above came as a relief at a time of the year which can be frustrating - loads of moths every night but far too many tiny ermine micros or Mother-of-Pearls. I have to guard against exhaustion with their sheer numbers to avoid missing occasional treasures.  The vivid Brimstone and Bordered Beauty below have been a great help to concentration too.

Ditto the jewel of a micro called the Pearl Grass Veneer or Catoptria pinella which I show below along with three different pics which give an idea of the cluttered conditions in the eggboxes where the moths snooze overnight.

I shouldn't grumble really as the variety of moths is keeping up strongly, even of the ratio of interesting ones to the overall catch has dwindled dramatically. Here, for example, are a Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing, an unusual view of a Common Footman with its wings unfurled, and a Common Carpet from below as well as above.

Next, four different views of a Dusky Thorn whose muscles must be strong. Imagine holding that resting pose with your arms in yoga!

And here below are the Dusky Pearl micro, Udea prunalis, a Poplar Kitten, some unidentified (and probably unidentifiable) eggs on the outside of the trap and another Pearl Grass Veneer.

The Poplar Kitten is unusual in having a pub named after it, a lively one in Harlow and a witty choice because thousands of East Londoners were moved to better housing in the then new town when slums and bomb-damaged housing in places such as Poplar were cleared.

Moving on, here's a rather battered Yellow Shell in long grass near the light trap, a Nut-tree Tussock - a species which has been going strong since the late Spring - an unusually soft cream Mother Of Pearl which was at least different from all the others, and lastly a Coronet.

Away from the moths, at the height of the heatwave, we found two bats dead within a few feet of one another on the lawn under a plum tree.  Our local Batman David Endacott advises us interestingly: "They look like Pipistrelle bats - probably dehydrated in the scorching climate. Bats in such conditions will fly in the day looking for water." The weather has taken quite a toll in the natural world.

Skipper butterflies are skipping round the garden but perhaps less energetically, the first generation looking increasingly ragged, and here is another victim of the heat, a Banded Demoiselle which expired un-noticed in our greenhouse. The beetle is a Rust Pine-borer or Arhopalus rusticus according to my iPhone Bug AI. We have plenty of conifers locally which the beetles like for their cosy homes but not to the extent of damaging the trees, fortunately. And behold a Common Frog, alerted in time to avoid the lawnmower.

Finally, we have taken to scouting for the many different colourways and patterns of the Harlequin ladybird after Penny was given this lovely T-shirt for her birthday by my younger sister. Not surprisingly, it attracts approval and admiration when we're out - and we've learned the collective noun for a group of ladybirds. A loveliness.  As my sister said when P told her in her thankyou, 'How lovely is that!'

Stripy

 

Behold my first Cinnabar cattie of the year, curiously alone, feeding on a poppy and inside our fruit cage. I am used to seeing them in large numbers feasting on ragwort. My younger sister was prompted by this to send me the photo below of a younger Cinnabars, a typical crowd but not on a typical plant. Perhaps they have discovered that a wide and wonderful world of cuisine is out there, as the British did in the 1950s when I was a boy.

In the moth trap meanwhile, I've found a Dunbar, a Ringed China-mark, an Early Thorn and that curious-looking creature, a Drinker moth whose handsome, blue velvet-jacketed caterpillars sip dew from the top of grass stems. Hence the name.

Alongside them were a Dusky Sallow, a very worn Black Arches, very battered so early in this beautiful species' season, and a nice surprise in the form of another garden first, the smart Olive moth marked by my red arrow.

The eggboxes also housed overnight a Brown-line Bright-eye, a Marbled White Spot, a Latticed Heath with its inevitable habit of resting in butterfly mode, a July Highflyer and a Scalloped Oak.

Finally, here is a familiar visitor, the bright little micro Endotricha flammealis and a second Early Thorn.  Just a bit later than the first.