August Moths

As well as adventures down by the river, photographing beavers, August has also seen Evelyn and I turning the moth trap on to see what we could find in the garden.

I was really surprised at the different moths that were in the trap, just a few weeks after the last time.

Again, I will reiterate that my knowledge of moths is not a patch on my dad’s, but the more I empty the trap, the more starts to come back to me! If I have identified them wrongly, please do let me know.

Here are some photos of some of the beautiful moths we caught this time.

Burnished Brass

Poplar Hawk-Moth

Spectacle Moth

Orange Swift on my shoe!

And this is my best effort of a full list of what we caught.

Common Wainscot	20
Poplar Hawk-Moth	2
Emerald Moth	1
Burnished Brass Moth	1
European Corn Borer	1
Clay Triple Lines	1
Common Purple and Gold	1
Spectacle Moth	3
Willow Beauty	1
Heart and Dart Moth	4
Setaceous Hebrew Character	1
Mother of Pearl Moth	5
Owlet moth? (I think)	1
Dark Spectacle Moth	1
Common Quaker Moth	1
Common Rustic Moth	2
Silver Y	1
Orange Swift	1
Common Carpet Moth	1

As well as night flying moths, we have also had an influx of hummingbird hawk moths in the garden, and Evelyn has rescued a couple of them from her poly tunnel, where she grows all of her tomatoes.

She seems to have some sort of magic touch,  because after very gently catching them in her hands she lifts her top hand off, and instead of flying away, more than one hummingbird hawk moth and several butterflies have just sat in her hands for a rest, before fluttering away! I’ve never seen that happen before, but she is very pleased with herself.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

And away!

Now the weather is slightly cooler, we are looking forward to turning on the trap once more to see what we can find in September. We will keep you posted.

No moths were harmed in the creation of this blog post!