New Moth Trap

We decided to upgrade our moth trap with a new Robinson trap which seems better as far as the number of escapees goes.  Also, the moths seem to batter themselves less.

Our first run of the new trap at the weekend produced a good crop of 51 species of moth, including 11 micro-moths.  We also had 2 species each of wasps, ladybirds, and shieldbugs.

The undoubted star of the show, if only in size was this beautiful Convolvulus Hawkmoth.  You can get an idea of the size from the shot of it perched on Maya's wrist. It is a spectacular insect by any measure.

In terms of rarities, though they seem to be getting less rare, this Jersey Tiger could compete with the hawkmoth at least in terms of colour.

And finally, this Common Purple and Gold micro-moth - a pretty moth in its own right - intrigued me.  It doesn't show up well in the photo, but if you look carefully you can see that the antennae curl round the two gold spots on the wing.  This got me thinking - has it evolved to do that, or is it just a natural antenna shape?  I looked at the photos of the only two other specimens of this species that I have and in one the antennae curved away from the spots, in the other they went straight across, so no conclusion there.  But if the spots have evolved to attract a mate, or for camouflage, or to deter predators, then you'd think that evolution wouldn't spoil the effect by draping antennae across them.  I will look at this species carefully in future.

Wasp Catering Service

Sallow Kitten - Furcula furcula

We had quite a good catch in our moth trap this weekend - a little over 40 species, probably the prettiest being this Sallow Kitten.

Sexton Beetle - Nicrophorus humator

We don't always get just moths though and beetles are common visitors like this sexton beetle - Nicrophorus humator - which as its name suggests has a habit of burying small corpses like mice or birds by digging underneath and pulling them down for undisturbed consumption.  If you look closely at its neck you'll see that it is carrying a passenger - an orange mite.

Common Wasp - Vespa vulgaris

Another visitor, who helped herself to yet another visitor was this common wasp - Vespa vulgaris - and you can tell its a female by counting the segments on her antennae.  There should be 12. (Males have 13.)

July Moth Highlights

We have used the moth trap on 3 occasions in July.  On the first occasion we had a bumper crop of 83 moth species (see the earlier post July moths), the second occasion we had 47 species, and on the third we had 33 species.  These numbers include both macro and micro-moths.  In total we had 116 different species in July.  We also had a very high number of species (25) that we had not had here before.

Below are some of the most photogenic species we found.

True Lover's Knot

Sallow Kitten

Leopard Moth

Dusky Sallow

Least Carpet

Horse Fly

Horse flies are not everybody's favourite insect, indeed they are unlikely to be anybody's favourite.  They get the name from their habit of biting horses, their thick hide being no obstacle to the mouthparts of horse flies.  And they are not only partial to a blood meal from horses, but will happily take blood from any mammals, humans included.  They are a large group of insects with about 160 species found in Europe, of which about 30 are found in the UK.  Another common name is the Cleg-fly though I have been unable to find the origin of the name except that it is from old Norse.  It sounds like something you may nail into the soles of your clogs, but then I'm from oop north so what do I know.

Bright Horse-fly

I found this one sat harmlessly sucking nectar from hogweed while looking for bumblebees - and it was at least as big as a bumblebee and I expect a bite from one would be quite painful.  I think that this specimen is called a Bright Horse Fly.  Otherwise known as Hybomitra distinguenda, it is distinguished from H. bimaculata by the extent of the orange marks on its abdomen, and from H. ciureai (a rare species found at Rye Harbour) by the colour at the base of its antennae.  The most striking thing about this insect, apart from its size and its orange marking is those incredible stripey eyes.

I don't think that the ladybird is in any danger from the horse fly, but it does look a very threatening pose.

Bright Horse-fly and scale model