The large and lovely Puss Moth makes at least one visit here a year, but I'm afraid that I may have missed its 2020 call. By the time I get to the trap around 6.30am, it has been light long enough for our many local birds to inspect the surroundings.Half-a-dozen or so moths usually decide to sleep al fresco, rather than inside the trap among the eggboxes and my eyes have become attuned over the years to their slightly different shapes and/or colours among the blades of lawn grass, plants' foliage, stone walls and trunks of trees. I quickly spotted something different in the grass this morning but sadly, as my top picture shows, it was just the sad remains of a Puss Moth rather than the real handsome thing.
The Puss Moth's black-and-white patterning is an example of eye-muddling 'dazzle' camouflage but it wasn't effective in this case. By contrast, the Green Carpet and Brindled (I think) Pug, sitting in plain sight on the light's rain shield in my second picture, had passed unnoticed. So had the strangely-shaped and very distinctive Chinese Character shown below. It is often compared to a small blob of bird poo; so maybe that explains why it escaped the robin and blackbird too.
Inside the trap, there were more new arrivals for the year: a Poplar Grey, a Light Brocade (I think) and that extraordinary moth, the Scorched Wing. This is another spectacular example of dazzle camouflage as well as a practitioner of extreme yoga. The form and colours of the pattern often make it hard for my digital phone to focus.
I also had some mothy experiences yesterday evening when I went to put the trap out for the night. I had put it away in our well-windowed shed in the morning to avoid the interest of the birds, and at 8.30pm quite a few of its inhabitants were still there and still asleep. Among them were the three Poplar Hawk moths shown which took up temporary residence on a slender Iris when I decanted them into the safety of garden bushes. As it happens, the plant is called Flight of Birds. Just briefly, it became Flight of Moths instead.
2 comments:
Martin I am afraid your Light Brocade is.... Well not a Light Brocade but a Rustic Shoulder Knot. When you see your first Rustic Shoulder Knot you know Summer is just around the corner and when you see your last Rustic Shoulder Knot you know it is Midsummer. Stay safe, Edward.
Thanks so much Edward - I will update. I am as useless with this kind of moth as I am with Pugs I thought at first that it was a Common Rustic but realised that they fly much later in the year. Thanks for that calendar tip too. All warm wishes M
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