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.