At last, after a gap of nearly four weeks, I put out the moth trap last night. The numbers weren’t huge this morning – what could I expect when I forgot to put the eggboxes in? – but at least I was able to do some recording, and enjoy the variety of species with different colourings and patterns.
The Miller, Acronicta leporina, in the top photo, was my first of the year. It isn’t frequent here but the flight season is roughly from May to early August, so I would have expected to have had one in the garden before now. It was very obliging, so I was able to place it in a more natural setting than my go-to blue towel.
I haven’t labellled the individual photos as I think the names speak for themselves. It was good to have a Burnished Brass and it showed up really well in the late summer sunshine. It’s amazing how those scales glitter green and gold.
A Square-spot Rustic showed its reddish brown background colouring well, together with the noticeably pale kidney mark that gives this species its name.
The Light Emerald was very flighty and I was only able to take a photo through the plastic pot – it escaped very shortly afterwards.
The Oak Hook-tip was easier to handle although it only had one of its hooked tips, the other having been nibbled or worn away.
The last photo is a White-point.
Nothing rare or exotic but it’s good to be mothing again. I will add separate pages with more information on these species over the next few days.
Natural history of the Bailiwick of Guernsey 