Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Moths Page 13

Image Taken on 06 Jul 2024 at 12:42 Image of day on 13 Aug 2024

Next day we find what is probably the same Moth utterly soaked by the rain lying on the grass path with wings tangled up. We untangled the wings and left the poor little creature to dry on the sunlit hedge. Gone next day - whether a rescue or a snack for a bird we don't know.
The orange you don't normally see is a quite common characteristic for moths - the orange top of the rear wings is normally covered and in flight the orange effect is a quite startling change from normal appearance. ID books often manage to show pics of insects called by their underwing colour without a hint of the colour in the photo or drawing!
The underwing colour shows well in photos taken in-flight - this pic shows the same moth with both wings closed and in flight at
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing in flight & on Hawthorn twig (montage)

Ref: 20240813_r70_20240706_1242_068+1244_076 scarlet tiger moth with tangled wings on ground rescued and left in hedge (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 15 Jun 2023 at 13:50 Image of day on 11 Aug 2023

The Moth trap catch this time was something between 200 and 300 moths - a more typical number than the thousand or so a few days earlier.
This is a Scorched Wing Moth caught in two moments of flight.

Ref: 20230811_da1_20230615_1350_110+1352_119+1518+329_ft1 scorched wind moth two flights with cranesbill (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 27 May 2017 at 11:22 Image of day on 18 Jul 2017

Another first for us, this time the Scorched Wing Moth.
We couldn't get it to fly for the camera, so here is our initial 'ID' pic.

Ref: 20170718_da1_20170527_1122_080_ft1 scorched wing moth (plagodis dolabraria) (crop on box)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 07 Sep 2012 at 20:32 Image of day on 21 Oct 2012

Not the more common Hebrew Character moth, but the 'Setaceous' (means 'hairy') variant on a yellow Buddleia.

Ref: 20121021_db1_20120907_2032_012 setaceous hebrew character moth feeding on buddleia (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 12 May 2022 at 13:53 Image of day on 20 Jun 2022

The stretch of hedge showing the density of the clusters

Ref: 20220620_d72_20220512_1353_029 silk meshes in south facing hedge (poss ermine moth caterpillars) 3 of 3(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 12 May 2022 at 13:51 Image of day on 20 Jun 2022

One patch of the south side of the south hedge becomes a 'nursery' for hundred of what we think are Ermine Moth caterpillars. The caterpillars 'hide' behind sheet of silk in groups a a few dozen.

Ref: 20220620_d72_20220512_1351_014 silk meshes in south facing hedge (poss ermine moth caterpillars) with 2x insert 1 of 3(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 12 May 2020 at 10:11 Image of day on 02 Jun 2020

This moth fluttered past us and landed on this stinging nettle. It is the fairly common 'Silver Y' Moth that flies both day and night. The Latin name (Autographa gamma) just seem so apt!

Ref: 20200602_df3_20200512_1011_125 silver y moth (autographa gamma) (1st of 2020)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 08 Sep 2009 at 20:18 Image of day on 22 Oct 2009

Another newly discovered dusk visitor to our yellow buddleia is this 'Silver Y' moth - it's not hard to see where it gets it's name.

Ref: 20091022_d01_20090908_2018_032 silver y moth feeding on yellow buddleia at night (orig)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 05 Aug 2006 at 12:23 Image of day on 17 Aug 2006

We are used to Silver Y moths in the (harmless) moth-trap but have not noticed them in the day before. This one is taking nectar from a teasel.

Ref: 20060817_d10_20060805_1223_035 silver y moth on teasel (daylight)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 02 Jul 2015 at 16:29 Image of day on 02 Sep 2015

For some reason - nature, farming practice or our observance - we are noticing more moths startled from the hedges in daylight and hiding as we walk along. This is a Silver-ground Carpet Moth hiding on a leaf.

Ref: 20150902_df3_20150702_1629_146 silver-ground carpet moth hiding in hedge(r+mb id@432).jpg

Image Taken on 24 Jun 2009 at 15:58 Image of day on 02 Sep 2015

From our archive of 6 years ago, here is an image of a Silver-ground Carpet Moth in flight with a Red Campion flower.

Ref: 20150902_da1_20090624_1558_212+1516_187 ft1 silver-ground carpet moth in flight with red campion flower (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 06 Jun 2021 at 08:34 Image of day on 09 Jul 2021

A Silver-ground Carpet Moth shows off the intricate wing pattern. The rather elongated look is because the wings are not fully covering one another as you normally see when the insect is resting.

Ref: 20210709_d73_20210606_0834_030 silver-ground carpet moth on leaf with rear wings partly exposed(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 30 Jul 2013 at 15:56 Image of day on 19 Sep 2013

There are several species of Burnet Moth, the most common types differentiated by the number of spots on a single side (not BOTH sides like counting spots on ladybird carapaces). This one was using it's proboscis to drink nectar from the thistle flower, accompanied by two hover-flies.

Ref: 20130919_df1_20130730_1556_084 six-spot burnet moth and marmalade hoverflies (episyrphus balteatus) on thistle flower (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 25 Jul 2009 at 12:56 Image of day on 31 Aug 2009

This is the first Burnet Moth of any sort we have spotted here. They are day-flying moths but don't fly very readily. So we have made a montage of our guest doing the best flight we got and then fluttering on a teasel head (where we had found it).

Ref: 20090831_da1_20090725_1256_169+1306_223 ft1 six-spot burnet moth in flight and perched on teasel (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 10 Aug 2017 at 15:21 Image of day on 20 Sep 2017

The Duck-shaped pond hosts numerous small white Moths that flutter about just over the water and then usually perch annoyingly out of view in the marginal vegetation. There are a variety of these China-mark Moths, of which this is the Small China-mark Moth staying for a moment in a less than ideal hiding spot.

Ref: 20170920_df3_20170810_1521_039 small china-mark moth(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 25 Jun 2018 at 14:33 Image of day on 12 Aug 2018

These moths that spend their lives precariously over water are generically called 'China Mark' moths, but comes in 4 varieties (at the moment - who knows what climate warming will bring) of which this is the Small China-mark Moth. You can just see the gorgeous patterning that adorns the lower wings.

Ref: 20180812_df3_20180625_1433_003 small china-mark moth at water surface(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 06 Jul 2015 at 10:40 Image of day on 03 Sep 2015

Our first ever sighting of a Small Elephant Hawk Moth, along with a (non-small) Elephant Hawk Moth, gave us a chance to compare them.
The Small Elephant Hawk Moth is on the left, and the Elephant Hawk Moth is on the right.
This is a photo-montage but at exactly the same scale. They are not just different sizes of the same insect, but distinct species with similar colour palette but different colour patterns. Both are quite small 'for hawk moths' - you might imagine that anything called 'Elephant' was at the large end, but it is the appearance of the caterpillar as a brown 'trunk' that gives them their name.

Ref: 20150903_da1_20150706_1040_088+1116_183_ft1 small elephant hawk moth + elephant hawk moth (identical scale montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 11 Jun 2023 at 07:27 Image of day on 03 Aug 2023

These two pink apparitions are respectively a Small Elephant Hawk-moth (big by average moth standards) and the 'normal (bigger)' Elephant Hawk-moth. Although they share the same strange mix of drab green and purple pink their markings are distinct.
We wanted to know whether these two species were separately evolved (convergent evolution) or one evolved from the other. A hopeful paper at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9021678/ contains lots of detail, but without technical background in genomics the various charts don't divulge much. There is no 'summary' to help.
If any expert finds this and can help, we would be delighted to update this entry.

Ref: 20230803_p10_20230611_0727_495+498 small elephant hawk moth + elephant hawk moth (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 06 Jul 2015 at 10:41 Image of day on 03 Sep 2015

This Small Elephant Hawk Moth was unusually caught twice in a single photo sequence. The camera fires 3 times at about 7fps to try to catch the insect somewhere in the frame. We have moved the top insect and duplicated the leaf by moving it upwards to avoid overlap.

Ref: 20150903_da1_20150706_1041_093+094_ft1 small elephant hawk moth flying from hawthorn twig @7fps 1+2 of 2 (vertically spread montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 17 Jun 2023 at 14:13 Image of day on 13 Aug 2023

The catch also included a few Small Elephant Hawk-moths. Here is a montage of this colourful not-so-little delight.

Ref: 20230813_da1_20230617_1413_301+300_ft1 small elephant hawk-moth in 2 flights (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

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