Hawkeye

The arrival of my biggest regular moth, the Privet Hawk, is always a moment to celebrate, marking the fact that high season for my hobby is getting under way. Here is this year's debut, as I found him or her below, and then with wings spread out above, to reveal the wasp-like warning colouration.

It would be a brave bird which tackled something of this size, whatever its colour, and my resident robins showed absolutely no interest. The Privet follows the Poplar Hawk, always the first to turn up here, and you can be sure that others will be along soon.

Plenty of smaller but lovely moths were there to join the party; a Cinnabar and Figure of 80 below, followed by that pleasantly original-looking species the Chocolate-tip.  The Cinnabar's bright colouring is also a warning to predators and a justified one; both the yellow and black caterpillars and the adult moth are poisonous.

There are truly vast numbers of maybugs or Common Cockchafers in the eggboxes at the moment and they are often busy ensuring a new generation, like the couple hard at work on the right. It's a tremendous sight when one of these curious, armour-plated insects takes off and starts banging around inside the trap. No wonder Nicholas Tesla as a boy tried the impossible task of getting four to power a model aeroplane. Alas, they all flew off giddily in different directions.

Here's a Common Wainscot looking like an angel moth, followed by that handsome Visitor the Coronet and then a Scorched Wing with a Treble Lines.  The Scorched Wing's pattern and colour is a masterpiece of optical art as camouflage. Even prolonged staring leaves you - or at least me - not entirely certain of where all the lines and shades are placed. What must it be like for a predatory bird?

Next we have a Rustic Shoulder-knot with another Cinnabar among the distant eggboxes behind, then a graceful and aptly-named Willow Beauty and a Marbled Minor. Then - pardon the intrusion - more maybugs busily if slightly complicatedly engaged... 

The moth tally continues with a White-point, a Cypress Carpet with its jet-fighter appearance and a rather stylish photo, though I says it who shouldn't, of a third Cinnabar.

The next picture is a second Scorched Wing, still with the eye-baffling lines and shades but showing a habit of many smaller moths - the extremely expressive waving of the genitalia to attract a mate. I'm not sure that the maybugs have any need of this gambit, but they might be interested in trying it.

Away from the moths, here's a fine Peacock butterfly which I spied on a walk into Oxford, basking in the sun on a canal bridge. And below it, another Common Wainscot glowing orange this time and a Buff Ermine, a lovely buttery-coloured cousin of the beautiful White Ermine which made its debuit for the year just the other day.