It is a butterfly or is a moth.

A not infrequent question when you come across one of the day flying moths such as this Latticed Heath. It sits like a small butterfly, it's about the same size as a
Chalkhill Blue butterfly and it shares the same habitat. It is a moth in the family
Geometridae, and
taxonomically it is more closely related to the Butterfly families than it is to many moths.

My conservatory, where I
empty my moth traps and try (not always successfully to identify what I've caught, it of course a great place to live if you are a spider. If it thought moths were difficult, then spiders are the next step up. I've looked for this chap but can't find his ID. (it's
Araneus diadematus, see Rob's note below). I lives in the corner of my
mothing room and has a fairly small web.

It is successful, and although I try and ensure the safe departure of moths that I bring in with the traps, it does sometimes catch one. It wastes no time in dashing out and imparting a lethal bite on the hapless insect. It also does a good job on the mosquitoes that I invariable bring in with me, as is whitnessed in this larder.

A bit of a sad case this morning.
When I got to my fourth trap (Black no 2) I found this wing next to the trap. It's the remains of a Jersey Tiger, a stunning and quite scarce moth. This evening I found the matching wing from the
other side, making the pair!
2 comments:
It's the garden spider, Araneus diadematus
Thanks very much Rob.
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