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

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Appearance of the dreaded worn moth LBJ's

I ran the moth trap last Saturday night and the hot, humid weather brought in quite a lot of moths. Unfortunately many of them were the dreaded LBJ's and to make matters even harder for a novice moth-er like myself many were very worn.

Here's a summary of the catch.

Saturday 17th July
9.30 p.m. until dawn.
Actinic 15w Skinner Trap
Temperature range 15.5 - 10.9 degrees centigrade

3 x Bright-line Brown-eye
5 x Rustic
10 x Mottled Rustic
2 x Common Wainscot
4 x Dark Arches
1 x Heart and Dart
3 x Scalloped Oak
1 x Buff Arches
2 x Riband Wave
2 x Dunbar
1 x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 x Purple Thorn ??
+ 3 mystery moths

Here are a few photos - apologies again for the poor quality - they are heavily cropped. Again, if anyone can help or correct identifications it would be greatly appreciated.

Not all sure about these 2 moths although I have a feeling they may be species of Rustic.




Once I had photographed and cropped I managed to identify this as a Shuttle-shaped Dart.



This one has me mystified. My best quess is a Dot moth but other ideas were Black Rustic but probably too early or Crescent but a garden seems to be the wrong habitat.

Edit - Have been checking through my id books again and I think this is probably a common rustic.



The following two photos show a species of Thorn. This is a very pretty and lively species of moth that tends to hold their wings above their body like a butterfly. The main colours on the moth were pinky/purple and orange and I think it is possibly a Purple Thorn which would be a new garden tick.

Edit - Having trawled through more id books and websites, I think this is actually an Early Thorn - still a new species for the garden though.







Saw a green-veined white butterfly in the garden on Sunday - the first in the garden this year. The second generation of holly blues are putting in an appearance now. The buddleias are just starting to flower so I am hoping this will attract a few more species. In the past we have had visits from small and large skippers, wall, small copper, and ringlets but I haven't seen any of these species in the garden for years.

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