Thorny

True to its perverse form, the 'August' Thorn has visited me in July, something that it has always done. Perhaps this practice is a patient, non-violent protest against its unsuitable name. Let us forgive it, because it is a prettily coloured moth with a natty way of posing, as above; a pleasant contrast to its brown and grey brethren in the eggboxes which sit with their wings clasped firmly like lids over their backs.

Here, by contrast, is a relative of the August Thorn which favours the 'butterfly' resting position, with its wings held up vertically above its body. This - above and below - is the second generation Early Thorn, a common frequenter of light traps.

Next we have the happy coincidence of both forms of the Riband Wave, a coffee-coloured moth with the riband reflecting the overall colour in the first example below, form remutata, and darker in the standard moth shown in the second picture. Both types have been visiting me in large numbers though nothing like as many as the current undoubted champion, the Mother of Pearl.

Here is an MoP,  below. They are very light sleepers and crowds of them flutter up when I move the trap; even more when I take out the bulb and slide off the transparent cowl. Mother of Pearls have the most lovely irridescent colour which shines and flickers when you turn them in and out of the light. I must make a little video of one one day to capture this effect which is hard to do justice to in a plain photograph, especially one of mine. Although larger than many macro moths, it is officially a micro, Pleuroptya ruralis.