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.