When the light comes on again...

A dry night (although damp again this morning), and so the trap had a brief outing, shorter than usual because we were late back from a trip to Bath. I spent three-and-a-half very happy years working there on the Evening Chronicle, now a weekly newspaper but still very good, and know of no more beautiful city in the UK.

We didn't see any butterflies except on the porcelain of the James Giles collection on show at the Holburne museum, a familiar landmark but now with a striking and successful modern extension at the back. There were butterflies aplenty in Giles' designs but, more interestingly, a solitary caterpillar on one of the plates; good that some wealthy diner or other didn't mind being reminded of this earlier stage in the insects' life cycle, even if he or she wouldn't have wanted to meet one in their salad.

I tried to take a picture but the digital focus was baffled by the glass exhibition case. But Googling found me the 1755 plate above, from the 2011 London Ceramics Fair, which has a similar appearance. And of course the famous contemporary children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar means that there is now unlikely to be shortage of larval porcelain, and plastic, for future collectors to amass.


And the trap?  Guess how many moths came to call.  Just two.  The familiar Beaded Chestnut, top below, which has been the commonest visitor for the last three weeks; and a Dark Chestnut with its conker-like, russet sheen. Update: sorry, it's a plain ornery Chestnut - many thanks to Ben in Comments. For a genuine Dark one, scroll back a few posts.