A new moth for me has come calling: the Cypress Pug which shares both the appearance and the taste in caterpillar foodplant of the Cypress Carpet. Both are relatively new for the UK as a whole, perhaps having found out about our otherwise unfortunate national liking for Leyland Cypress hedges.
The Cypress Carpet, shown below, first visited me on 17 July 2021. It made its debut in the UK in 1984 when the first was recorded in East Sussex. Thanks to the hedges, no doubt, it has since flourished mightily and is now a regular here and across most of the South of England.
Back on the Pug, this made landfall at Lamorna Cove in Cornwall in 1059 and has since spread in much the same way as the Carpet although it has taken longer to find me. There is no scientific connection that I know of but both little moths strike me as diminutive versions of the Pine Hawk - incidentally the only one of my regular hawk moths not to show up this year, so far. Here's one, to see if you agree:
Here are a couple more Cypress Pug shots, one with the wings outstretched, the customary resting position for pugs, and the other its underside, courtesy of the trap's transparent cowl.
What else have I to report? Here's a nice Frosted Orange, like my last post's Centre-barred Sallow a harbinger of Autumn, followed by a Large Fruit-tree Tortrix, a large 'micro' indeed, and a couple of current regulars, the Flounced Rustic and the Straw Underwing.
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