Sunday 6 May 2018

Small but beautiful


Another crop of interesting moths came last night as the lovely spell of weather continued. The one at the top is new to me - at least, new in the sense that I have not recorded it before. It is classified as 'common' and so I am sure that it must have paid me a visit, but passed un-noticed.

It is the micro-moth Acleris literana, not to be confused with its relative and near namesake Acleris laterana. I like the delicate indication of green, all the fainter on this specimen which looks as though he or she has been a round a bit.  The species is on the wing in the UK from July round to May, so we are also at the end of the 2017-18 cycle.


My second picture shows, clockwise from top left, a Pug moth which I have yet to ID exactly, a Muslin showing the Malvolio leggings which are such a contrast to its soft, dark grey cloak, a Pale Prominent with its characteristic snout and a very pretty Scorched Carpet.


Finally, this equally pretty little moth baffled me initially as it was scurrying about - though fortunately not interested in fluttering off - and made itself very difficult to photograph. I didn't recognise it until it finally found a spot which set its nerves at ease and assumed the unmistakable resting pose of a Chinese-character moth (the character being the silvery mark in the middle of the wing, rather than a Confucian state of mind).

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