Thursday 25 March 2010

Not all Drab.

A warmer and overcast night brought a few more moths last night, a total of 86 of seven species.

Twin-spotted Quaker

At this time of year many of them are not particularly interesting, for some reason most of the more brightly patterned and impressive ones wait until it is summer before putting in an appearance. The unimaginatively named Twin-spotted Quaker was new for the year.

Clouded Drab
You can't really expect much from a moth named "Clouded Drab" and of course it lives up to it's name. The first of these was yesterday and a few more appeared today.

Oak Beauty

A moth with a bit more going for it is the Oak Beauty, the male above has a striking pattern. This is a close relative of the Peppered Moth, but it will have finished before the Peppered Moth appears in May. So far this year I've caught just nine species.

The Satellite

Another fairly plain moth but distinguished both by the win pattern and the imagination of the entomologist that gave it it's common name is the Satellite.

Here you can see the two "planets. one on each forewing, each with two moons or satellites circling them.

2 comments:

Bennyboymothman said...

That's a good return for this time of year, you can't ask for much more than that!!
Nice pictures too.

Warren Baker said...

I wodered about the 'satelite' name Tony. Now I know!