I have been very lucky in seeing moth and butterfly rarities which I never thought would come my way, notably the Death's Head Hawk moth and the Clifden Nonpareil. But I cannot honestly rate my chancdes of ever setting eyes on an Oleander Hawk moth. When my entomological granddaughter asks me which moth I would most like to meet, the Oleander is invariably my reply.
So guess what? The said granddaughter has just given me one for my birthday and extremely excellent it is. It's the picture above which exactly meets the criteria which Penny and I were setting the other day in a discussion about art. Few people want a painting to resemble a photography exactly, for what is the point? But if you can produce the 'idea' of your subject in your own style, layering the paint as she has done and making skilful use of textured paper, then you have it. Spot-on!
We do actually grow Oleander here just in case one of these glorious but exceedingly rare migrants from continental Europe is flying nearby. But I have inspected vast groves of the pink and white-flowered bush in Greece, France and Spain with nary a sign. What hope has our single potted plant?
The moth trap has meanwhile been happy to welcome a Beautiful Golden Y above and a Lackey, below, the latter names because the coloured stripes of its caterpillar were held by 18th century entomologists to resemble footmen's uniforms.
Also new for the year, we have a Mottled Beauty, above, and, below, an ichneumon wasp which my iPhone identifies generically as Ophion and a caddis fly which it reckons more specifically to be Limnephilus rhombicus.
And finally, our little local colony of Lizard Orchids has come out earlier than the commoner species which abound here and I can't resist showing you its weird flowers. The others should catch up soon after today's very welcome, persistent rain
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