Mooning about

 

I doubt that I am alone in getting a kick from novelties and especially so after all my years of light-trapping which mean that a newcomer is a rare event. I thought that I had one this morning - the prettily-marked moth above and below - but actually it came to see me 12 years ago in July 2014.

Given the state of the human memory at the age of 76, that does almost make it a newcomer for me; I am quite looking forward to that time of life when forgetfulness makes many things 'new'. It is a Lunar-spotted Pinion and I wrote at some length about it here. I tickled this morning's into flying away and thus showing me both its wings as it powered up. Below are more conventional pictures taken as it slumbered.

Another slightly unusual visitor today was this oddly-marked Common Emerald below; it would be interesting to know what caused the dorsal fading. Alas, as I have often remarked and was doing only yesterday with the Green Pug which stayed overnight, green is doomed to fade very quickly in moths. My second picture below shows another one which also came last night but is clearly a few days older

The weather is lovely and warm now and other visitors were plentiful. Here's a selection:

Beautiful Golden Y - I think. They can be hard (for me) to distinguish from the good old Silver Y

Brown-line, Bright-eye which takes over at this time of year from its buddy the Bright line, Brown eye

The Box Tree moth which has caused such devastation to the country's hedges

The dear little 'bird dropping moth' - the Chinese Character. The name refers to the silvery-white squiggles

Two of an (almost) kind, both resting on a sunflower just by the light trap: the Mottled Beauty above and the Willow Beauty below

Finally, I enjoy stalking day-flying moths which you set up regularly from hedgerows and long grass. I'm pretty sure that this one is the quite large micro-moth, Anania crocealis.