Summer colours

The Big Daddy of my moths paid a call last night, showing off his or her waspish body with the warning yellow replaced by gentle pink. This is appropriate because the Privet Hawk moth can do no more harm than tickling your fingers in spite of its formidable appearance. I am surprised by how many children believe me when I reassure them about this; they tend to take the big insects happily on to their hands and suggest impractically that they would like to keep one as a pet.

The Scarlet Tiger is another sure-fire winner although usually too skittish to sit happily on a finger or thumb. It is a day-flying moth and partly for that reason much less sleepy than most when I examine the moth trap's eggboxes in the morning.  You may be wondering if you are new to moths why this one is called Scarlet. There's a clue in the picture below.

Yes, the underwing is a dramatic contrast to the forewings, intentionally as the moth flashes them to startle predators. The Tigers are beautiful creatures and often mistaken for butterflies though they neither swoop nor glide but jerk erratically about.

The little moth below may be dismissed as small and grey on a casual glance but look more carefully. Can you see the green? This elusive colour in moths fades very rapidly from its early freshness but it's still there on this Green Pug, like a very gentle, glittery sheen.

I've got this next one down on iRecord as a Dwarf Cream Wave but my photo was given a red dot, so I will have to wait and see until an expert rules. The pallid Waves are one of those groups of moths which still give me ID difficulties after all these years, like the pugs and assorted browny greyey Rustics etc.. 

This below, however, is a Small Scallop, I am sure, and a very dainty moth too, and after it comes a solitary White Satin on our garden table and then a quintet of micro-moths with their names beneath.

From the top left, we have pretty-in-pink Lozotaeniodes formosana, A Bird-cherry Ermine (the species which sometimes engulf trees and even parked cars in their vast larval webs),  Anania coronata, a frequent visitor, and finally another regular, yellow Agapeta hamana, and Parapoynx stratiotata or the Ringed China-mark. The Linnaean names, although cumbersome for such little creatures, can have a splendid ring.

Here's the Privet Hawk again shortly before I took measures to hide it from that little blur in the background of the first photo; my over-attentive robin. Famously cheeky, these determined birds regard my activities as a massive breakfast opportunity. I am as vigilant as I can be but sometimes fail to save to save a moth, usually because they rashly fly out of the trap rather than waiting for me to photograph them.  Still, I feel bad because I was the one who lured them here, within Cock Robin's darting range. Alas for the Pale Tussock, below. RIP. And yet, moths and their caterpillars are of huge importance in the bird food chain.

Next a Mayfly, delightfully elegant and graceful but mown down in swathes by riverside birds and seldom living for more than 24 hours. Then an excellent picture taken by a neighbour of a hoverfly about to nectar at a Pyramidal Orchid; and finally a Peacock caterpillar which was walking the Thames Path on Monday at the same time as me.