Eyeing me up

I'm back at the moth trap after ten days away and plenty of guests are arriving in spite of the unsettled weather. Some of the eggboxes were a little damp this morning but this glorious Eyed Hawk moth was unaffected and went along docilely with my photo session on a delphinium.

Here he or she is below as I found him or her when I lifted the trap's lid; a handsome moth but with no evidence of the glorious colours on the top hindwing. There's a reason for that: the deterrent effect on a predator when the wings are suddenly flashed. Whether their 'eyes' create the appearance of an animal to a bird, I do not know, but they certainly do for a human observer.

My other hawk this morning was an Elephant, very common but also very beautiful. And then there was a procession of interesting moths of all shapes, sizes and colours:

A Dark Arches with its familiar jagged marks, a moth which will come in large numbers over the next month or so

Common Marbled Carpet with its subtle markings and soft colours

A Small Magpie micro (one of seven in the trap) and a Cinnabar, both toxic to birds and consequently well-painted with warning colouration

A Peppered Moth and a Willow Beauty

And in a brief break from moths, a Common Carder Bee. The name comes from its habit of making a soft ball of wool for its eggs in a process much like the carding of wool into threads and fibres 

A Dot moth - guess why - and below a Barred Straw with its angular wings like a Lysander aircraft from the Second World War.

A Dwarf Cream Wave and, below, two more of the mini-invasion by Small Magpies

Outside the trap in nearby foliage were this Brimstone Moth and the White Plume micro below - a moth often disturbed from long grass during the day

A Riband Wave - the type with a clear as opposed to grey riband

One of the baffling pugs whose ID sadly eludes me. Help appreciated

A handsome Brown Rustic in excellently fresh condition

A Heart and Dart, one of the first moths to come to my trap over 20 years ago when my report attracted attention from a soap shop in New Yark also called Heart and Dart.

The lovely Burnished Brass, form aurea with the central band complete rather than divided by 'brass' as in the other form, juncta

A Light Emerald hobnobbing with another Willow Beauty

A male Pale Tussock on the trap's bulbholder and below, the same moth from the other side.

And finally a richly-coloured Silver Y to conclude the guests. What will tonight bring in?