Marvel on Cue

The moth recording season in the UK is drawing to a close, not with a bang or a whimper but graced by the beautiful species above whose arrival is always one of my last annual treats. Its name is as lovely as its physical beauty, the Merveille du Jour, although as I have faithfully and pedantically observed every year, like Cato on Carthage, it is actually a Merveille du Nuit.

This year it made its debut with excellent timing, appearing on cue for a 'moth breakfast which we have been trying to arrange with a couple of friends for a while. October is not the best month for people to come and see what my lamp has attracted, even if Penny's croissants are outstanding. The chances of a small or dull guest list were quite high.

Instead the Merveille turned up, or rather three of them did, and our guests were delighted to see the lovely colours and patterns at close range and in no rush. One of them is the granddaughter of a very distinguished entomologist at the world-famous Rothampsted research centre and her father was an expert on weeds while an uncle knew more about pondweed than pretty much anyone else in the world.

They took a couple of Merveilles with them to their home in North Oxford where, with luck, they may start a new colony. I noticed on the Upper Thames Moths' Facebook page the other day that a fellow-enthusiast was finding many more moths coming to the light-trap at his new home on Boar's Hill, overlooking the city, than he ever had in central Oxford. He particularly cited the Merveille du Jour. So perhaps my two colonists will start to put that right.  

We also had a nice range of other delightful or interesting moths, among them the following, clockwise from top left in each composite pic:

Autumnal Rustic, Satellite - quite a light brown example of a species which is usually darker, Beaded Chestnut with its wings unusually half open and its abdomen tip - the mating zone - tilted up. This is a posture more often found in smaller moths such as the Carpets. And lastly a Red-line Quaker, appropriately modest in colouring but smart.

Then we had a Brindled Green, a Lesser Treble-bar, the long-lasting hedge-terror the Box Moth which has been visiting since early Summer, and a Green-brindled Crescent with its glinting green metallic wing scales.

We weren't the only enthusiasts for a moth breakfast. Our resident Robin was ready and waiting too, although he clearly concluded that four human brings were too much to challenge, rather than just the usual solitary, elderly one.