Gothick - or Mothick?

 

If I had an award for my most faithful companion from the moth trap, it would undoubtedly go to the Poplar Hawk. These fine if rather Miss Haversham-ish creatures have been visiting almost without pause ever since mid-May There were three the other morning which I posed on a dying rose (a beautiful last stage of this wonderful flower). Gothick, I told the family who were visiting. Mothick, my son replied. 

The Poplar Hawk is a very fine creature in many respects, noted for holding its hindwings forward of the front ones when at rest and for the red warning colouration, flashed in moments of peril and shown below. It really looks quite ominous in a stealth bomber sense from various angles such as the head-on view above.

Other recent visitors include, from top left below: male Orange Swift, Red-legged Shieldbug, female Orange Swift and Lime-speck Pug:

Then a couple of Turnip moths, the hedge-destroying immigrant Box moth, another male Orange Swift, a Small Phoenix and a Common Carpet pretending to be a butterfly:

Then the underwing of one of the white or cream Waves (ID to follow), another Common Carpet, a Light Emerald and the micro European Corn-borer, Ostrinia nubilalis:

Onwards, with a Willow Beauty, another Small Phoenix,  a Sallow Kitten and a White-point:

Next, three pics of a Wainscot whose ID I'm uncertain about and will check; 

Then the bright little micro Pyrausta purpuralis, an example with unusually dull brown in place of the purple sheen which also marks its close relation Pyrausta aurata or the Mint moth which does indeed love mint and is shown in the next three photos:

Nearly there! Here are a Waved Umber, the banana/toffee micro Agapeta hamana, a Double-striped Pug and a shiny Burnished Brass, form juncta:

And finally, one of half-a-dozen hornets which have led me to take great care with the eggboxes. They have a nest just above our bedroom window but are very mild and unaggressive in spite of their formidable size and appearance.