Trump's Tiny Moth

 

We've had a cold North wind this week and the season continues to wind down, but the guests in the moth-trap eggboxes are still pretty numerous and varied. Here, for example, is a doughty immigrant micromoth, above, the Rusty-dot Pearl or Udea ferugalis which somehow contrives to reach our island from overseas at this time of the year.

The lovely Merveille du Jour is still putting in frequent appearances, with examples getting more and more faded at the edge of their forewings. I've also hosted a Yellow-line Quaker, an aptly-named Lead-coloured Tortrix micro, aka Acleris sparsana and very boring-looking, a Beaded Chestnut, a Red-line Quaker, a handsome Satellite and a Black Rustic. 

We'll have a short break now for a tiny little woodlouse, which has the grand and appropriate Linnaean name of Armadillidium vulgare. It looks just like a tiny armadillo.  As you know, these creatures have a suicidal habit of living under stones and bricks in the garden and millions must be crushed annually when such rubble is moved. Still, there also appear to be millions left.  I have posted it on iRecord to see who the woodlouse verifier is, and meanwhile enjoyed its many evocative names on Wikipedia which include roly-poly, common pillbug, slater, doodlebug and - I have yet to find out why on Earth - carpenter.

More of my moth visitors after that interlude: a Light Brown Apple Moth, aka Epiphyas postvittana, a Turnip Moth and one or other of the impossible-to-tell-apart Autumnal, November and Winter moths. We've also been graced by a lot of Red-green Carpets Moths in recent weeks and here are four of them.  Beautiful creatures.

In a different part of the moth world, I'm giving a little talk today promoting light-trapping and the organiser has waggishly added 'the Future of the Republican party' to my topic.  I have little to say about this apart from sharing the global happiness that the familiar old United States is clearly alive and kicking - kicking hard and where it hurts.

However, the challenge prompted me to Google 'moths and the Republican party' and the omniscient machine immediately came up with these combinations, below. I recommend following up both with your own research. The Trump micro is a satisfyingly minuscule memorial to a tragically over-inflated ego.