Boxing clever

I am trying to discover whether the Box Moth, by far the most successful species in my trapping this year, eats anything other than the plant after which it is named. I have had SO many arrive in the last three months, and have seen such a startlingly large number at the grandchildren's and elsewhere, that I find it hard to believe that they can survive on Box alone. They are certainly causing devastation although to be absolutely honest, my grief at this has limits. If I had to choose between the small-leaved and rather ordinary plant which people cut into geometrical patterns in huge display gardens, and the handsome, even stylish, moth, I would plump without hesitation for the latter.

The Box Moth comes in two main forms, one velvety black like the Phantom of the Opera and the other with a shiny white centre to all four wings, more like the singer whom the Phantom pursues. In between there are variants on this basic theme. All have a delicious purple sheen. 

Here are some more of them in assorted settings. They are easy to disturb by day; indeed I suspect that prolonged study may eventually add them to the UK's list of day-flying moths, and my sense of their huge success and vast numbers is increased by the number of sightings and photos I've been sent by people who've found one during the daytime and wondered what it was.

This success is all the more remarkable because the moth, a native of south east Asia presumably introduced in imported plants or food, was first recorded here - in Kent - in 2007. Here are two more, along with the last Top Moth in the annual calendar, a Merveille du Jour, for which I have been keenly waiting. But that's tomorrow's story.