Golden syrup

Today's title refers not to my brief dalliance with rum-and-treacling and wineropes, whose moth tally remains obstinately at nil, but to the delightful first moth in my pics: the Gold Spot, or indistinguishable (to an amateur like myself) Lempke's Gold Spot. The top picture shows it from above, the one below, from the side. A jewel of a moth.

Otherwise, things were excellent in terms of numbers - topping 300 overnight guests - but less so in terms of unexpected or particularly interesting arrivals. Which isn't to say that there wasn't much to enjoy. The Large Yellow Underwing below, for example, contentedly balancing a Caddis fly on its head.

I had trouble identifying these next three so many thanks to Dave Maunder who put me right on the ever-excellent Upper Thames Moths blog. They are a Brown-spot Pinion followed by two Common Wainscots, the latter a useful example of how two otherwise identical moths can come in different colours.

Finally, a representative of the micro-moth world. Because of other commitments, I have been a bit lax about trying to ID these tiny arrivals, but this one is distinctive enough even for me: a Large Fruit-tree Tortrix. Appropriately, the trap was placed beneath a large plum tree.