Stripes and stockings

There was a welcome, bright greeting to the trap this morning: perched on the cowl was this red and black - albeit greenish-looking - Cinnabar moth, a common visitor whose equally cheerful black and yellow caterpillars liven up our local ragwort later in the Summer.

Just below it, snuggled on the lampholder, was this pair of Carpet moths, a family named in the 18th century because their intricate patterns reminded entomologists of the carpets arriving from the Middle East in ever-more varied and rich designs. Both are already familiars in the trap: a Green and a Red Twin-spot, and they had several comrades actually inside the eggboxes. Here's another pair, the RTS without the spots which are so distinctive on the first example. Wear and tear, I think.

The cigar or twig-like Buff Tip arrived for the first time, seen here perched alongside a rather striking Daddy Longlegs or Crane Fly. In my new enthusiasm for other insects, I have added a few close-ups of this creature's body patterns with their attractive metallic yellowy-green.  I have just Googled 'metallic green uk cranefly' and I wonder if it might be the Tiger Cranefly. I will send it to iRecord under that name and see what transpires. Update: yes, they confirm that it is.

Back in Mothland, the other guests included a darker form of the Shuttle-shaped Dart, a Lime-speck Pug (one of my top pug favourites because even I can identify it instantly) and a couple of micros: the Light Brown Apple, Epiphyas postvittana, which comes here a lot, and a real tiddler - see in the context of its mighty eggbox - which I can't exactly nail but might be Monopis weaverella. I will seek enlightenment from the Upper Thames Moths blog.

Finally, I can never resist the chance to show a Muslin moth's Malvolio style yellow leggings and this speciment obliged me by tumbling from his eggbox fast asleep and landing upside down. I am sorry that some of today's pics are a bit dark and not so focussed; I think I was out a little early and the backdrop of the dark plastic trap bowl never helps.