June beauties, Part 1

The last few weeks have shown the abundance of moths here, none of them new but a rich procession which it is always a pleasure to record. One of the less frequent over the years has been the Cypress Carpet with its sharply-angled dark streaks. It has expanded rapidly in the UK after arriving in the record books as recently as 1984. 

The Muslin Footman is one of a number of delicately-patterned May and June moths whose slight blurring has always caught my attention as a particularly effective form of dazzle camouflage. It is one of a category known to me, if not the wider moth-ing world, as 'Laura Ashley Moths' because of their likeness to the floaty, pretty dresses which were happily popular in my courting days.  Here are three more: a Common White Wave, a Treble Brown-spot and, I think, a Lesser Cream Wave.

The Poplar Grey, below, is too chunky to be a Laura Ashley Moth but it has the same combination of black, grey and white making up a beautiful pattern on its wings.

Finally, here's an old favourite, the Barred Straw, demonstrating its wish to be a butterfly with its wings closed vertically above its back, followed by one of the many dragonflies which patrol our garden - in this case, I am pretty sure thanks to UK Dragonflies' excellent website, a female Common Darter. Darting is what indeed they do.