Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Monday 10 September 2012

A Beautiful Yellow Moth

There were another couple of new moth species for the year found after trapping on Saturday night.

First of all this beautiful sulphur yellow Brimstone Moth - a species illustrating that moths can be just as lovely as butterflies! Its only the second time I've caught this moth - although this specimen had alighted on the nearby kitchen window and wasn't actually in the trap itself.



Secondly, an Autumnal Rustic moth. What a lovely name and another species I don't trap very often. It led me a merry dance round the kitchen as I tried to take a photo ending up on a Doctor Who dalek mug. Its now been retrapped and released!

I think its a rather dapper looking moth and I love the anvil shaped mark.



Many moth species have varying colour forms and here's a mustardy yellow Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing.



Finally, the inevitable query! Again a worn moth - this could be a Vine's Rustic or Uncertain or Rustic or even some other species!



I did examine 4 of the Copper Underwings very closely as they showed possible features of Svensson's Copper Underwing. I am pretty sure they were all Copper so the search continues!

As always if any of the above id's are incorrect please let me know.


Summary of Moths Trapped Saturday, 8th September

8.00 p.m. until dawn. Minimum Temperature 8.1 degrees centigrade
15w Actinic Skinner Trap

2107 Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) x 17

2134 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) x 1

2109 Lesser Yellow Underwing (Noctua comes) x 2

1937 Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) x 2

1906 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) x 1 NFY

2353 Flounced Rustic (Luperina testacea) x 8

2110 Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing (Noctua fimbriata) x 1

2297 Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea) x 16

2117 Autumnal Rustic (Eugnorisma glareosa) x 1 NFY

2303 Straw Underwing (Thalpophila matura) x 1

0998 Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) x 1

2293 Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica) x 1


6 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Hi Caroline, so sorry to have missed commenting on your recent posts. I am really struggling to fit blogging in with 'real' life at the moment :-(

The first two moths are particularly lovely, the first reminds me of a cross between a Brimstone and a Clouded Yellow butterfiy :-)

I really love your waterfall, I'm sure it will attract all sorts of goodies but apart from that it just looks so attractive!

Ragged Robin said...

Shy Songbird - Hi Jan - Please don't ever worry about missing commenting on posts. I am just pleased to hear from you when you are able :) As you say at times "real" life gets in the way of reading blogs or blogging yourself as I have found out this year!

Love your comment on the first moth - your description is spot on!!! Not that I've ever seen a Clouded Yellow - another one on on my "wish list" of things to see!

Glad you like the waterfall too :)

Hope you are well and take care.

Best wishes Caroline

Rob said...

Beautiful moths, Caroline. The yellow one reminds me of a sherbert dab. The Doctor Who mug makes an interesting background!

Dartford Warbler said...

We have seen your yellow moth once or twice here. I remember one flying into the house last summer. A beautiful thing.

Rohrerbot said...

Love that yellow moth. That's an odd light lemon color as far as moths go. Looks like the moths after your initial concern of not being there are finally there in numbers. Just delayed this year. Here we've had the same issues with the hummingbirds....everything was "delayed" but the show is incredible right now.

Ragged Robin said...

Rob - Many thanks. The sherbert dab description is brilliant! and I repotted it before it was zapped!

Dartford Warbler - So glad you have been able to see this beautiful moth :)

Rohrerbot - Thanks Chris. Moth numbers have increased but when I get round to adding up the total number of species seen this year I think it will be lower than previous years :( Glad your hummingbirds are increasing though!