Everyone loves the Buff-tip

Who could ever tire of the Buff-tip moth with its marvellous twig - or indeed cigar butt - camouflage and comical fake 'face' above its actual one, as shown above. It never fails to intrigue our visitors who coincide with one arriving in the light trap as happened this week.  Being a large moth, it is also sleepy in the morning and happily consents to transfer from the eggboxes to somewhere more pictoresque for photos.

Another distinctive regular at the moment is the Buff Arches, seen directly below from behind in an eggbox cone which shows its curious raised hairs on its brow, somewhat like a Pharoah's headdress in ancient papyri. The second picture shows it from the diametrically opposite direction, where the headdress is perhaps more reminiscent of Tommy Steele and other popularisers of quiffs.

Next come the rather sad surviving parts of a Black Arches, a dazzle camouflage master with a spectacular pink body. You can just make that out in my second picture, which has the moth flourishing its bushy antennae like a very small Denis Healey. In spite of its battered state, this one was well able to fly and eventually made off.

I was very pleased to get a Sycamore in the trap, a moth which is only locally common and very beautifully patterned especially if the insect decides to perch on lichen.

And here are some of the more appealing of the rest of the catch - lots of moths numerically but not a huge range of species. First, a couple of Large Elephant Hawks have gone to sleep in a pose which makes them look like worshippers of the little Spindle or Cherry-tree Ermine on the peak of the cone.

Then a Least Carpet added its name to this year's tally of moths for my garden, a very small but pleasantly-patterned regular with its smudges of grey on a white background, followed by a Purple Thorn in its characteristic resting position and a delicate Clouded Silver, one of the most characteristic of the 'Laura Ashley' moths.

And to end with, a composite of other recent arrivals: another Buff Arches, a Pale Prominent arrested in a nose dive, the micro Endotricha flammealis, a Peppered, a Scalloped Oak, a micro which I need to ID in an unusual spreadwing position, a Dusky Sallow and a couple of Nut-tree Tussocks, the first whirring its wings to summon up energy for take-off. Lots about!