Christmas colours

An early birthday present from my grandchildren had excellent results in the trap last night, including the vivid red and oily-black Cinnabar above and the handsome Lime Hawk seen with a Green Carpet below. Red and Green were always described as 'Christmas colours' by my children, notably when we were once driving along the Burley Road into Leeds in midsummer, and they were struck by the 'Christmas' combination of redbrick and trees in full leaf.

What was the present? Here it is in action, below - a string of battery-powered 'moth lights' which I strung out in a flowerbed to help to entice flying night-time visitors. Whether or not they liked it, I cannot say, but the effect was appealing to the human eye.

I had to be cautious with the eggboxes this morning as, along with a score of moths, they contained four fat wasps.  Here are some of the other moth arrivals: the year's first Setaceous Hebrew Character, pictured to the right of the standard Hebrew Character. And then a composite of, clockwise from top left: Treble Lines, Marbled Minor, Garden Carpet, Flame Shoulder and the large micro-moth, Garden Pebble. The last was very jittery and permitted only the one picture before fluttering away drunkenly, pausing twice very briefly on the lawn before vanishing into a nettle bed.

Finally, here's a pic of the Lime Hawk's underwing and a couple of composites, just to celebrate Christmas Colours once more: