Moth Highlights

Moth numbers have been drastically down this year, though this weekend we did have slightly greater numbers than we have had so far this year.  There were 40 individuals of 16 species including micros.  The star of the show from the trap however, was not a moth but a beetle.

Great Silver Beetle - Hydrophilus piceus

Great Silver Beetle - Hydrophilus piceus

This Great Silver Beetle turned up.  We've never had one before and we've never seen anything that big before.  In case you are wondering, the coin in the second picture is a 50 pence piece, not a 20 pence piece.  Unsurprisingly it is one of Europe's largest beetles.  You may also be wondering why it is called a Great Silver Beetle when it is clearly black or a very dark brown.  This is because when it is not being distracted from its mating flight by the bright lights of Pett, it is an aquatic species and when it is diving under water a layer of air clings to its back and gives it a silvery appearance.

Eyed Hawkmoth - Smerinthus ocellata

Though the Elephant Hawkmoth tried hard by sheer weight of numbers (we had 8), the contender for co-star was this superb Eyed Hawkmoth.  The eyes that give it the name are hidden in this photo as they are on the hind wings.  It flashes the eyes if it feels threatened, but here it was perched comfortably on the side of the moth trap waiting for darkness.  The second photo is a close-up of the wing-tip, just to see if I could get close enough to see the scales - success!

Green Pug - Pasiphila rectangulata

Pug moths can be very difficult to identify as there are a number of very similar looking moths in the group.  We had two in the trap - a Foxglove Pug that we have seen before and is fairly distinctive, and this one that we'd not seen before.  It looked like a pug and was quite green.  Looking in the book, there was only one that had any green on it, and it was the imaginatively named Green Pug.