Please forgive a bit of self-indulgence but I always feel impelled to celebrate the arrival of the Black Arches, a feast of op-art with added pink and pale grey. It also has terrific antennae in the male, as in the upside-down picture above.
The first one I saw was on a wall near the trap and then there was a second in the eggboxes. I am afraid that I cannot resist copying my grandchildren and enticing them on to my finger to demonstrate the grey underwings and pink body shown in the two pictures, left and below:
The Black Arches' 'dazzle' camouflage contrasts with the strategy of the Knot Grass, one of which was resting on the wall not far from the Black Arches but had escaped my notice. The moth merged extraordinarily well into its background; only the little pale 'moustache' shows.
The Knot Grass is quite a variable moth and by chance there was another in the eggboxes, paler and with an even more distinctive 'tash:
Other overnighters included a second Op-art moth, the Small Magpie micro which is bigger than quite a few UK macro moths, a Smoky Wainscot, a Nut-tree Tussock, a Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing with its Malvolio leggings and a Lychnis.
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