It's been suddenly mild after a couple of cold snaps and so I lit the lamp again having originally decided that things were over for 2024. I was encouraged too by this glorious sunset which made me wonder if the moths would all ignore my trap and follow Epicurus who in the famous words of Lucretius 'fared afar beyond the flaming ramparts of the world until he wandered the unmeasurable All.'
Perhaps they did, because the sole new arrival was this spindly Common Plume. A pleasure for me to see and photograph but definitely not enough to interest my gluttonous robin, below, which flew away empty-beaked.
There was also a very bright Moon which is known to divert some moths into a hopeless attempt to fly the 238,855 miles from Earth.
And at the bottom of the eggboxes, two December moths which arrived at least a week ago. Dead, sadly. They could have easily have flown to freedom but preferred to hunker down and expire, something that I've often noticed before with many types of moth when tucking the trap away in the shed out of robin reach. Theydo not eat and perhaps they have mated and are programmed to hide rather than risk birds and bats and so have nothing left to do.
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