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!'