Captured Hooks

 

The Hook-tips are stylish moths with something of the shape of a modern American stealth bomber about them. Each is attractive on its own but last night I had the pleasure of two different species: the Oak Hook-tip above and the Beautiful Hook-tip below.

The Beautiful Hook-tip deserves its name, with the subtle colouring around the actual hook. It is only locally common in the South of England and rare in the North but it has always paid me annual visits here.

We have a fine, upstanding oak tree on the edge of our garden although sadly the drought is causing it to shed acorns at the moment by the barrel-load. Somewhere in all its branches will the annual breeding ground of the Oak Hook-tips which also visit me every Summer without fail.

Here they are together - both species tend to go for the cowl and the walls of the trap rather than the eggboxes, perhaps because they always spread their wings widely when at rest.

And here's the underside of one of the Oak Hook-tips, conveniently visible through the cowl.

The same applies to this very dark Snout, the 'Pinocchio Moth' with its very long palps like the puppet's nose; its underside is above and topside below:

Here's a Copper Underwing, always an unusually jittery moth which emphatically does not share the placid dozing of most of my visitors when I inspect them in the morning: 

And finally, a Purple Thorn and a Straw Underwing; both new, I think, for this year.