Catch-up; steady the Buffs (and Greys)

 

Before our expedition to the Peloponnese in late May, the moths had been coming here in good numbers and here is a little hark-back to those arrivals.  They were all predictable and none of them new to me - complete novelties are very rare after all these years but they do come from time to time. The finely-whiskered gent at the top if the Malvolio of UK moths, the Muslin, apparently a modest, grey species until you spot the fine yellow stocking tops.

The topside view of the moth is bottom left in the first composite pic below. The female, which seldom comes to light and never has yet to mine, is white. The micros in the top row are, I think and hope, Agnopterix arenella and Cochylis atracapitana and  the pretty moth on the bottom right is a male Pale Tussock.

Next we have the Muslin's prettier relative, the White Ermine, a common moth and also one which more people seem to see than is normally the case with moths. Over the years, I've had several dozen inquiries about them from people who've found them slumbering indoors, like hibernating Peacock or Small Tortoiseshell butterflies. On the right we have a Green Carpet, a very pretty little moth whose colour fades as it ages, and a Lesser Swallow Prominent.

The quartet below came earlier, at the end of April: a Brindled Beauty and a Pale Pinion and below them a Hebrew Character on the left and a male March moth, one of the Winter and Spring species whose females are flightless, poor things.

Sticking with the grey and buff swatch of moths, the next four are an Early Grey, a rather dark Hebrew Character, a Clouded Drab and two beyond my powers although I recognise my granddaughter's hand.

I'm not sure about the IDs of the next two either but...

...no prizes for me in getting this trio: the good old Poplar Hawk, always the first of the hawks but very late this year in arriving on 18 May, my birthday. Below on the left, the lovely Chinese Character with its distinctive resting position which, it has to be said, is thought by some moth camouflage experts to protect it from birds via the resemblance to a dropping. A very beautiful dropping nonetheless. And on the right a cockchafer or Maybug, bizarre creations which always make me smile.

So to the final instalment of grey; I will hope to bring you something more colourful in the next post.  The Nut-tree Tussock on the top left is accompanied by three micros: one which I cannot ID (top right), plus another Agnopterix arenella and a Twenty-plume.