Monday 17 August 2015

Making a Friends with a Moth

Moths haven't had a great season, according to the scientific observations I have made in my three major observatories.

1) The kitchen window

2) The window of the Chinese takeaway on the way into town

3) The Prince Rupert pub

There's been a single swallow tailed moth, and utterly nothing else of note at night. Thank heaven for that hummingbird hawk moth I found on the red valerian in Hawton.

Normally the kitchen window would be a melee of large yellow underwings at this time of year - or a magnificent red underwing on a lucky night - but until a couple of nights ago I hadn't seen any. These two specimens were caught on consecutive nights, the first engaging in the usual mothular headbanging, the second trying to be friends with my awful workboots.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.08.15




7 comments:

  1. Haha! Good moth haul here in the light trap so I think you can relax about mothy numbers this year :o)

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  2. No, I haven't seen very many this year either. Maybe because my boots are out in the shed....

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  3. Those boots were on my feet lol, maybe the moth liked the colour. There were a few moths at the pub last night, attractive little black, white and grey green ones.

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  4. My trap was full of these this morning, not very pleasant when they get stuck in your hair when checking the trap though..
    Amanda xx

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  5. We are just starting to get lots of moths here in Suffolk. Thank you so much for your thought on the butterfly's eye and perception of colour on my post. Worth checking out ...

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  6. Thank you for dropping in! The yellow underwing is probably the most common large species of late summer I think, but numbers well down. I've known evenings where there's been 10 on the window.

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  7. Large Yellow Underwing numbers haven't built up here yet this year - getting up to a dozen in the moth trap but some years I have had up to 100! Will be interesting to see if numbers build up over the next month.

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