Popular Poplars and another newcomer

The grandchildren have gone home but the hawk moths are very much still here. There were seven Poplar Hawks in the eggboxes this morning and they obligingly posed together - though the one on my palm ws whirring up for take-off which happened a few seconds later.  I thought that I had successfully hidden the others in shrubs but while writing this, I felt a major flutter around my ankles. It was one which hadn't got away. So I popped it out of the window.

I'm not particularly into encouraging moths as 'pets' though the discovery of Nature's wonders is significant for a child. But Poplar Hawks are actually exceptionally amenable. Here is my granddaughter's elaborate home for one which stayed in her bedroom all weekend, before I released it after she had left. It has a lair in the loopaper tube, flowers both real (in a jar out of shot) and painted, jewels (which the granddaughter feels have great appeal to any mysterious creature of the night), some pocket money and various other rather strange facilities.

My first hawkmoth 0f 2018, also a Poplar, came on the night of May 6/7, so they are having a wonderful season, certainly with two broods and perhaps more. I've had all the regulars from the family as well except the Hummingbird Hawk.

Among other recent arrivals, I've had a Heart and Club, above, and a Whitepoint,  Brimstone, Ruby Tiger and Dot Moth below:

It was also good to have a Shuttle-shaped Dart which was prepared to show a different wing position from the usual tight furl, as in the second of these two pictures:

And finally, I was very pleased to have my second new moth in a week, a common species like the Tawny-barred Angle which came on the night of August 2/3, but one which had not yet paid a call here.  It's a rather faded Dark Spinach, an ID kindly given to me by Adam Bassett on the unfailingly helpful Upper Thames Moths blog.  Update: sorry, I forgot to add its photograph. Age...  Here it is along with a corner of my vivid pyjamas:

A pirate's life for me

This continues to be a vintage hawk moth Summer, especially for Poplar Hawks. They get everywhere, as you can see above, and I have just come in after finding another four in the trap this morning. This is excellent in terms of the visiting grandchildren whose long-standing habit of taking sleepy moths on to their fingers has now developed into making elaborate nests for them out of leaves and twigs, decorated with toy jewels.

A by-product is that we now have moths all over the house, including a Poplar Hawk roosting (safely) down the loo, much to the children's mirth.  I did take a photo but am not convinced that it would be appropriate for a family blog...

Not that you need toy jewels when you have living ones such as the Gold Spot which is also enjoying a notably numerous season, along with the Blood-vein. Other pretty and welcome visitors in the last couple of nights have included, below, a Red twin-spot Carpet (I think - Update: sorry no; I've just checked online on the excellent UK Moths site and it's a Balsam Carpet. I've got a picture of an RTS ready for tomorrow), a Brimstone on foliage just outside the trap, an educational pair of the Swallow Prominent (left) and Lesser Swallow Prominent, the latter with its distinctive little triangle of white, a slightly streaky plume micro which is probably a Common Plume but might be one of the others (I will check) and a large green hawker dragonfly which whirred and clattered into our grape-filled greenhouse.

 

May the moths be with you

With a nice sense of timing, the moths have laid on a Star Wars show to coincide with the arrival of our grandchildren for a few days of sunshine here.  Darth Vader has assumed the shape of a Straw Underwing, top right in the composite below, and then we have a series of spaceship-like insects: an Agapeta hamana micro with a slight wing fault, top left, plus a Gold Spot and Ruby Tiger (nice to see the latter's vivid but normally-concealed body through its whirring wings) and a Straw Dot.

Here's another wing-whirrer: the Straw Underwing from the first photo which I tapped out of its eggbox cone retreat. It wanted to fly away immediately but need the time and whirring practice before lift-off.

Then a delightfully delicate (and, for me, unusually unblurry) Common White Wave, one of what I have long referred to as the Laura Ashley family of moths because of their dainty nighties, like those in the famous dress designer's early collections.

One of the commonest moths in the trap at the moment is the Blood-vein, well-named for the thick red band from tip to tip of its wings.  The second picture below shows the variety of sizes in which Blood-veins come - especially this year when there seems some evidence that the very dry weather has reduced the supply of foodplants and possibly speeded up the process of pupation, leading to smaller adult insects.  The third picture, although hopelessly blurred (in part because of the problems for digital cameras when taking pictures of moths in the black but reflective trap bowl), shows the feathery antennae of the male.

Lastly, here are some everyday but handsome moths: a Bright-line brown-eye with a Straw Underwing and a boldly reflecting/refracting Burnished Brass accompanied by that jumbo and well-named micro,  Schoenobius gigantella.

Something new

It is getting rarer and rarer for me to find something new in the moth trap, but that happened yesterday morning. It's always a nice surprise and this time a little more surprising than on previous occasions because the moth is actually classified as common throughout the UK and even 'often abundant'.

It's the Tawny-barred Angle, a comprehensive and accurate description of its colouring and wing shape - the latter similar only to the three Peacock moths. I wonder why it has never called on me before; or perhaps it has and I have overlooked it. Or it may have been one of the small cloud of delicate, fluttery moths which always escape on light Summer mornings when I take the bulbholder out of the trap.

I almost missed this one. As you can see in the first picture above left, it hadn't actually gone into the trap but was perched - in dire peril of bird strike - at the top of one of the rainshield's struts. Luckily it was too dozy to be alarmed by my looming presence. Indeed it obligingly transferred to a plastic box for a different photo and a very brief spell in captivity before I worked out what it was.

Elsewhere in the eggboxes, things were as busy as ever at this time of the year, although none of the other visitors were of special interest. But they included the beautifully coloured, plump August Thorn (I think; the various Thorns are notoriously confusing) above, and an unusual view of the Pale Prominent below. The moth's usual resting position is shown in my final pic.

Mellow fruitfulness

It's much too early to be thinking of Autumn, especially as the heat of this exceptional Summer is apparently due to return after the current, very welcome hiatus of fresher weather and some soft, refreshing rain.

That said, the lovely Thorn moth in my first picture does have colours evocative of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness etc.  More to the entomological point, which Thorn is it? There are so many on the go, but because of its resting position and violet band, I am going to opt for Purple Thorn.

Next, I was struck by the difference between the two Shuttle-shaped Darts at the top of the composite picture above. The lighter one is the male, the darker the female. Below them are a couple of Prominents who always have a family representative in the trap at the moment;  Iron to the left, Pebble to the right.

My second composite shows a couple of Willow Beauties, lovely delicate 'old lady' moths, the first accompanied by a nice, fresh Flame Carpet. On the bottom row is another irresistible Black Arches and - I think - a Common or Lesser Common Rustic with colouring rather similar to the rusty appearance of the Iron Prominent.

So to the continuing presence of hawk moths with the Poplar, top right, alongside a Common Plume - plume moths are very frequent visitors at the moment - a rather light Dark Arches and a Marbled Coronet, lovely moth. Plus a pretty pair below: another Willow Beauty on the transparent(ish) cowl beside a Lime-speck Pug.

Lastly, my granddaughter is currently into using dead ladybirds on her ever more interesting drawings and paintings of various members of the family. The trap is getting plenty at the moment, mostly the American sort whose invasion of the UK seems to be going all too well.

Shady spot

I tried a new and previously over-looked spot for the trap last night. It had the advantage of plentiful tree-shelter on an evening which started off quite rainy but grew dryer as the night set in. 

The first visitor I spotted was the Black Arches, above, resting quietly on our front gate. Inside the trap there was a another treat, albeit a tiny one, in the form of this Beautiful Plume micro Amblyptilia acanthadactyla (Linnaean names are like the Sri Lanakan ones on University Challenge which often need an extra-long nameboard).

Alongside it in the eggboxes was its plainer relative the Common Plume, below, and an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny micro of the sort with which I seldom bother. I had a go at photographing it this time and I think that it is a mini-mini-chap or chapess called Phalonidia manniana.  But I definitely need to check that with Upper Thames Moths.

Finally, another challenge to my ID skills came in the form of this Carpety character below. A Red Carpet, I think, but another check is in order.

Each to their own

The trap's bulbholder is usually festooned with moths at this time of the year, perhaps because it is warmer than the eggboxes further below. The majority are usually Mother-of-Pearl micros as in the picture above, but look closely and you will see that a family of wasps have pegged out their own territory, on the metal screw attachment even closer to the bulb, the source of heat. They are a minor hazard in the eggboxes at the moment although generally too sleepy to get annoyed. Hornets keep putting in appearances too, causing me to act with extreme care.

Here's a different occupant of the bulbholder and one which only gave me one chance at a photo before flexing its battered wings and taking off with admirable agility and speed.  Although the picture is a bit blurred and the specimen so tatty, I am pretty sure that this is the attractive and attractively-named Maiden's Blush, as opposed to the larger and more angular - and more common - Bloodveins which were on the opposite side of the bowl - picture left.

We had prolonged rain for the first time in ages overnight but I had checked the forecast and snuggled the trap up against a hawthorn hedge. This and the remarkable efficiency of Mr and Mrs Robinson's simple rain shield kept the bulb, the trap and its occupants dry although their numbers were much smaller than of late. Smaller, but attractive as you can see below although I am having a senior moment in identifying the first two, distinctive as they may appear.  Help appreciated; but for now I will suggest an unusually dark Marbled Beauty and a Clouded Brindle (with a relative in the third picture plus a Marbled Minor and Gold Spot and my helpful thumb to give scale).

Next we have a Ruby Tiger showing as much of its vivid red body as they usually allow me to see and then a poplar Kitten (I think, but please correct me if it is a Sallow Kitten; both visit, and confuse, me.

And lastly, a trio of fluttery Carpety moths: a July Highflyer (do they fly high? I have yet to read an explanation for the name); a Common Carpet and a red Twin-spot Carpet which has sadly seen better days.