Thursday 6 August 2009

Below the radar


Is it a stealth bomber? No, a Willow Beauty. A male one, because it has those fine, feathered antennae, tapering to a narrow tip. The trap attracts a lot of these at the moment and if they land nearby, on almost any surface their camouflage works as well as the Stealth's invisibility to radar. Other abundant arrivals are various Wave moths, smaller versions of the bridal Common White Wave a couple of posts below. They look a bit like the generally much rarer Mocha moths, which include one sounding like a Prime Ministerial hot drink: Blair's Mocha. Dr G.K.Blair of the Isle of Wight was one of the most successful spotters of previously unknown moths; he also discovered Blair's Wainscot and Blair's Shoulder-Knot. The latter provided the BBC with some fun when there was a sudden increase in its numbers near Gordon Brown's Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency in 2007

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