Coming in one by one

The moths came good again last night, or rather I should say 'the moth'. For the second night running, there was just one resident in the trap, but it was a pretty and interesting one.

It's a Dotted Border, common but new to my list because I'm normally in bed in February and not inclined to light the lamp.  It's another moth, like the Pale Brindled Beauty featured two posts ago, whose female draws the short straw and hasn't any wings, as per Richard Lewington's marvellous pictures from my Moth Bible.

If you look closely, you can see that Mrs and Miss Dotted Border actually fare worse than the lady Pale Brindled Beauties. Insult is added to injury in that they have vestigial wings, but ones which wouldn't get them very far in flight.

Unconcerned by such gender issues, my handsome male Dotted Border was good and lively after a very mild and largely dry night, unlike the zonked-out Dark Chestnut on Sunday morning. I was hoping to get a picture of its pallid underwings with their prominent dark spot, but I moved clumsily and the moth got into a flutter. Before I knew it, it had flown daintily away across the lawn.