Pink flush

Elephant Hawk moths are pouring in at the moment along with the biggest influx of Peppered moths I have experienced since we moved from Leeds to Oxford in 2013. Both are very familiar to me but never lose their charm and interest; hence the photo above. The colours are both bright and subtle and have surely inspired artists and designers, especially of textiles. And although few people see the adult moth, unless they are lucky enough to have a light trap, the elephant trunk-like caterpillars are quite often discovered in late Summer on Rosebay Willowherb or creeping quite rapidly about in search of somewhere to spin a cocoon and pupate.

On that score, Penny and I have just been over in Massachusetts to celebrate our younger son's year as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and we came across this happy family of caterpillars in a communal web on the sand dunes of Cape Cod.

It was cold and rainy but a couple of guys came past and I asked them if by any chance they were entomologists. This rather startled them until I explained about the caterpillars in which they took an interest. After some thought, they said Nope, no idea. 'Fraid we're birders' and I thought was it. However, the following day we were crossing a zebra to an oyster bar in Wellfleet when the car which had courteously stopped for us rolled down a window. A head poked out and said: "You're the entomology guy we mat on Morris Island!"  Small world!  I'd meanwhile done some overnight Googling so was able to tell them the catties belong to the Eastern Tent moth, which live in a bundle but sally forth three times a day to feed (just like most of us).  I passed this on but couldn't go into detail as the car behind was getting a bit impatient.

The moths' habit is exactly the same as these ermine micro moths', spotted here in their own tent on a walk in Wiltshire. The moth is small but the caterpillars are tremendous spinners, responsible for the webs which you sometimes see engulfing entire trees and occasionally cars parked for too long beneath them.

In the trap meanwhile, I have more newcomers for the year, all old familiars but very welcome, each and every one:

Clouded Silver

The Flame - the only moth which sometimes really does make a beeling for your ear

Brown Rustic I think

Burnished Brass form juncta with the metallic sheen dividing the brown crossband

Marbled Minor aggregate (because the various forms are so similar)

Udea olivalis micro with the sinister head of an...

...ichneumon wasp - horrible creatures (by human standards) which lay their eggs in other insects' larvae which the growing ichneumon children treat as living larders. Ugh! 

Orange Footman - a delicate little pill of a moth

And finally the lovely Treble Brown Spot, very small but with delightful patterns and colouring